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CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 



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E. DE PRESSENSE, D.D., 

Author of "Jesus Christ: His Titnes, Life, and Work. 



TRANSLATED BY 



ANNIE HARWOOD. 





^Lontion: 

HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 

27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 



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MDCCCLXXIII. 






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L'NWIN BROTHERS, 
PRINTERS BY WATER-POWER 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE, 



This Volume — " Heresy and Christian Doctrine," now 
introduced for the first time to the English public, is 
the third in a consecutive series, intended to present 
a complete picture, from the Author's point of view, 
of the spiritual life and history of the Church during 
the iirst three centuries of the Christian era. The 
two previous volumes — " Early Years of Christianity " 
and '* Martyrs and Apologists" — delineated chiefly the 
extensive growth of the Church and its conflicts with 
enemies without. The present volume treats rather 
of its intensive development and the history of its 
doctrines. 

The concluding volume of the series will appear 
simultaneously in English and in French. The recent 
pressure of political, in addition to pastoral duties, 
has prevented Dr. Pressense, as yet, from arranging 
his accumulated materials for this work. He has, 
however, engaged to prepare it for publication with the 
least possible delay. 

Annie Harwood. 



Great Shelford, Cambridge, 
December lot/i, i8'j2. 



CONTENTS. 



Book fir^t. 

HERESY. 
CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Gnosticism i 

I. The General Characteristics of Gnosticism - - - i 

II. The Gnostics of the First School. Valentinus and his 

followers 23 

III. The Gnostics of the Second School. The Ophites. 

Marcion 39 



CHAPTER IL 

MANICHiEISM - 51 

CHAPTER III. 

JUDAisiNG Heresy in the Second and Third Cen- 
turies 74 

I. The Elkesaites and the Ebionites - - - - - 74 

II. The Clementines - -'- - - -- -85 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

PAGE 

MONTANISM •■ - - lOI 

CHAPTER V. 

The First Unitarians 125 

I. The First School of Unitarians 125 

II. The Second School of Unitarians - - - - 138 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Apocryphal Literature of the Second and 
Third Centuries, and its Influence upon the 
Formation of Oral Tradition - - - - 151 

I. Apocryphal Writings positively Heretical - - - 153 

II. The Apocrypha not positively Heretical . - - 173 



feeconti ©ook> 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 
IN THE SECOND AND THIRD CENTURIES. 

CHAPTER I. 

General Considerations 193 

I. The Universal Faith of the Church in the Second and 

Third Centuries ------- 193 

II. The Various Schools and Tendencies in the Dogmatic 

Development of the Second and Third Centuries - 208 



CONTENTS. Vll 
CHAPTER II. 

PAGE 

The Greco-Asiatic School - - - - - - 221 

I. The Letter to Diognetus - 221 

II. The Theology of Justin Martyr 227 

III. Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Tatian - - 250 

CHAPTER III. 

The Theology of the Alexandrine School. Clement 

OF Alexandria - - - - - - - 255 

I. The Theodicy of Clement of Alexandria - - . 256 

II. Creation and Redemption 264 

III. Christian Morals. Authority. The Doctrine of the 
Church and of the Sacraments. The Closing Dispen- 
sation 276 

CHAPTER IV. 

Continuation of the Alexandrine School. The 

System of Origen 296 

I. The Theodicy of Origen --_-__ 299 

II. The Creation and the Fall - 308 

III. Redemption - - - - - - - -321 

IV. Conversion and the Christian Life - _ _ _ 338 

V. The Church. Worship. The Sacrament. The End of 

all things --------- 346 



CHAPTER V. 

Continuation of the Alexandrine School. The 

Disciples of Origen 356 

I. Pierius, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Theognostus - - 357 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V ,—Coiiti7ined, 



PAGE 



II. Dionysius of Alexandria 360 

III. Julius Africanus, Methodius, Pamphylus the Martyr - 368 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Greco-Roman School 374 

I. The Theology of Irenaeus 375 

II, St. Hippolytus. Dionysius of Rome - - - - 405 

CHAPTER VII. 

The School of Carthage 419 

I. The System of Tertullian 419 

II. Cyprian 456 

Conclusion 463 

Index. - - - 473 



THE 



HISTORY OF DOCTRINE. 



BOOK FIRST— HERESY. 
CHAPTER I. 

GNOSTICISM. 

(a) The General Characteristics of Gnosticism. 

In the two preceding volumes of this work we have 
described the great conflicts of the Church of Christ 
during the first three centuries of our era. The history 
of primitive Christianity is the history of a desperate 
struggle between the old world and the new faith just 
cradled in Judaea. This warfare was not confined to 
any one sphere ; it was universal. Persecution was 
the first and inevitable manifestation of this deadly 
hostility. Not only was the new religion opposed 
to all the constituent principles of Pagan society, and 
repugnant to the prejudices of degenerate Judaism, 
but it was essentially an aggressive and victorious 
power. It was not content to be an alien in the midst 
of the brilliant and corrupt civilisation into which 
it was born, and to pass upon it only the silent con- 

2 



2 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

demnation of its own pure presence ; it lifted up its 
voice in protest against its vileness and deceptive 
lustre. It did not merely refuse to offer incense to 
the idol ; it unmasked the false god and denounced 
the abominations of the idol-worship. 

The humblest of its representatives was a witness 
for Christ — His soldier, His missionary. In all places 
and in all seasons Christianity carried on a mission, 
ever active and aggressive. Between it and the ancient 
world the opposition was radical and absolute. Doubt- 
less, on the part of the Christians, all was gentleness 
and resignation, but this very gentleness under the 
fire of persecution, had the effect of an irritating 
provocation in a society, the only recognised basis 
of which was violence. Martyrdom, blending sublime 
resignation with unconquerable fidelity, was the holy 
challenge of the soul to brute force, and the fiercest 
resistance would have been better tolerated than this 
triumphant weakness, which revealed the indomitable 
energy of conscience. 

This terrible conflict, which lasted for three 
centuries, we .have traced through its various phases, 
till the day when the sword fell from the hand 
of the persecutors.* But the struggle was not con- 
fined to arenas and torture-prisons ; it was carried 
on also in the domain of thought. Paganism assailed 
Christian doctrine by all the voices at its command — 
by popular clamour, by public calumny, by the sar- 
casms of fine satirists like Lucian, by the formal 
philosophy of a Celsus and a Porphyry. Nay, it even 

"^ See " Martyrs and Apologists." The great conflict between 
Christianity and Paganism. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 3 

devised new systems, by which it sought to vanquish 
the Gospel with its own weapons, borrowing from it 
the methods for the assault. We have endeavoured 
to reproduce the learned and eloquent replies to these 
various assailants, which were presented by the 
Christian apology of the first ages, as it found ex- 
ponents at Carthage, at Alexandria, and at Rome. 

We have now to deal with more dangerous and 
treacherous attacks, those, namely, of heresy, which 
added, as it were, the perils of intestine and civil war 
to these formidable assaults from without. In reality, 
the enemy is always the same, but more subtle and 
disguised ; the adversary is still the ancient world, 
but now the attempt is to stifle the new religion 
by embracing it. If Christianity could not release 
itself from this deadly clasp, it was, indeed, doomed, 
for it would have lost that which constituted its 
essence and vital principle. I know that some 
question our right thus to characterise the ten- 
dencies which were so keenly combated by the early 
Fathers. The very name of heresy is regarded as 
an attack levelled at liberty of conscience and of 
thought. We cannot share these scruples, the logical 
issue of which must be to deprive Christianity of all 
distinctive character. 

Doubtless, in subsequent times, when the Church — 
transformed into a hierarchy, and incorporated with the 
Empire — committed to the civil power the guardianship 
of her creed, the designation heresy acquired a new 
import ; it was the dictum of an arbitrary, often 
tyrannical authority, and too often carried in its train 
forcible and material repression. But this was not the 



4 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

case in the period preceding the great Councils, when 
no civil penalties were attached to spiritual errors. The 
Church was then a free association ; and it was open 
to any, without detriment, to separate from it. The 
argument against error was enforced only by moral 
and intellectual suasion. One uniform type of doctrine 
had not yet been produced ; secondary differences found 
free expression in the East and West ; theology was 
not fettered by invariable formulas. If, in the midst 
of this diversity, we still discover a common basis of 
faith, we must surely regard this, not as a system 
composed and formulated by the authority of a school, 
but as the faith itself, in its truest instinct and most 
spontaneous manifestation. If this same unanimity, 
which is apparent in the essentials of the faith, is also 
displayed in the repudiation of certain other influences, 
ma}^ we not fairly conclude that those influences were 
in flagrant controversion of the fundamental principles 
of Christianity ? This presumption becomes a certainty 
if we recognise, in the doctrine thus universally rejected 
by the Church, the characteristic features of one of the 
religions of the past. It is impossible to maintain that 
Gnosticism and Ebionitism are legitimate forms of 
Christian thought, unless we are prepared to admit 
that Christian thought has no individuality, no specific 
character by which it may be recognised. Otherwise, 
under pretext of giving it greater breadth, it is reduced 
to a nullity. No one, in the time of Plato, would have 
dared to attach his name to any doctrine which would 
have been incompatible with the theory of ideas, and 
anyone would have excited the just ridicule of Greece, 
who should have spoken of Epicurus or of Zeno as a 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 5 

disciple of the Academy. Let us admit then, that if 
there exists a religion or doctrine known as Christianity, 
the existence of heresies in connection with it is a 
necessary possibility. 

The word heresy has properly a very noble meaning, 
since it signifies free choice applied to a doctrine. 

From the first the new religion was called a heresy 
by the Jews,* who were accustomed to designate by this 
name various parties or divers sects. To the orthodoxy 
of the synagogue indeed, Christianity could not but 
seem worthy of excommunication, since it assailed its 
very vital principle. The Apostles applied the same 
designation to the tendencies which, whether from the 
Jewish point of view or from that of Pagan speculation, 
impinged upon and imperilled the true faith in Jesus 
Christ. t The Fathers used the word heresy in the 
same manner. We, like them, must understand it to 
apply to doctrines which, upon some capital point, are 
in direct contradiction to primitive Christianity. In 
the second and third centuries, heresy is always a 
reaction, either in the direction of Judaism or Paganism. 
Thus it carries on, in an inner and more vital sphere, 
the same conflict which was waged between the Gospel 
and the ancient world, in the realms of fact and of 
thought. The Pagan reaction was by far the most 
important. The heresy which sprang from Judaism 
was a timid and insignificant thing, or, at least, was 
far outweighed and outrun by the heresy which was 
born of Paganism. The latter therefore will claim 
our first attention.! We have already indicated its 

'■' Acts xxiv. 14. f Gal. v. 20 ; Titus iii. 10. 

I The principal books of reference for the study of Gnosticism 



b THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

obscure beginnings in the portion of this book devoted 
to the Apostohc age. In the second century, it emerges 
from the formative period as a great school, and sets 
up its own altar in opposition to that of primitive 
Christianity. The time is come for us to characterise 
this important spiritual movement, so rife w^ith perils 
to the Church. 

However numerous the schools into which Gnosti- 
cism is divided, it has one dominant trait, which is 
never effaced, and which is sufficiently indicated by 
its very name. The term knowledge occurs in the 
writings of the Apostles, but it there designates simply 
the more profound apprehension of Christian truth.* 
In the Epistle of Barnabas it acquires a sense more 
nearly allied to the new meaning, which became 
attached to it in the second century, for it there 
represents an allegorical interpretation of the Old 
Testament, superseding the literal import. t It is but 

are : ist. The writings of Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Theodoret ("De 
Hseretic, Fabulis") against heresies. 2nd. The writings of the Fathers, 
and primarily those of the Alexandrine Fathers. Eusebius' History 
is very important, because of its quotations. 3rd. The " Philosophou- 
mena" (Ed. Dunker and Schneidewin, Gottingen, 1855), in which we 
find, for the first time, the genuine text of Basilides and Valentinus. 
This is a document of the first moment, to which we shall con- 
stantly refer. 4th. The " Pistis Sophia," a sort of Gnostic poem, 
recently discovered (Ed. Petermann, Berlin, 1853). 5th. Among 
modern writings, beside the general histories of the Church and of 
doctrine from which we may quote, we refer to Neander's monograph, 
"Genetische Entwickel. der Vornehmst. Gnostisch. Systeme," 181 8; 
the remarkable essay of his disciple Rossel, published in his 
posthumous works (" Thepl. Schrift," Berlin, 1847); Baur's great 
book, " Die Christliche Gnosis," Tubingen, 1835; ^md "I'Histoire 
Critique du Gnosticisme," by M. Matter, 1 828-1 845. All these works 
of reference are inadequate, because so many new sources have been 
opened up. 

^= I Cor. viii. i ; 2 Cor. viii. 7. f " Ep. Barnab.," chap. ii. ix. x. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 7 

a step beyond this to the daring speculation which 
arbitrarily tampers with the texts. The tendency of 
Gnosticism is always to make the element of knowledge 
predominate over that of the moral life ; it changes 
religion into theosophy. If it had confined itself to 
seeking the satisfaction of the intellectual faculties 
by the searching study of revelation, the attempt would 
have been perfectly justifiable. Christianity is not 
a religion that stultifies the m_ental faculties ; on the 
contrary, it gives a powerful impetus to thought, and 
enlarges its domain by opening to it the realm 
of the infinite, the invisible, the divine ; and if the 
mind is indeed overwhelmed by truths which are as 
high above its grasp as the heavens are above the 
earth, it sinks only under the weight of unsearchable 
riches. Faith leads to knowledge, for it is not possible 
that the whole nature of the man — head, heart, and 
conscience — should not strive to apprehend the divine 
object of his faith. There is a genuine Christian 
knowledge, which has taken an important part in 
the developmicnt of the Church ; theology is the very 
knowledge which, according to Apostolic precept, is 
to be added to faith. But, in order to preserve its 
true character, it must never be allowed to become 
pure speculation, or to fall into the esoterism which 
makes its doctrines a mystery to all but the select 
initiate. Christianity is a divine manifestation, a free 
and sovereign intervention of God in history ; it is a 
fact before it is an idea ; its history is the basis of 
its system. It is a positive rather than a theoretical 
religion, — a glorious remedy for a desperate evil, a 
grand restoration. On the awful reality of the Fall, 



5 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

it rears the sublime reality of Redemption. Hence its 
eminently moral character ; it moves in the living 
sphere of free and personal influences, over which logic 
has no rigid or restrictive power. It starts with the 
statement of great facts, which are not the product 
of a syllogism, since liberty, whether in God or man, 
eludes the restraints of reasoning, and by its very 
essence reveals itself as a spontaneous force. This 
moral and historical character of Christianity is just 
that which brings it within the reach of all men, 
whatever their diversities of intellectual culture, since 
it makes its appeal primarily to the heart and con- 
science — to that which is fundamental and universal 
in the soul. This is the key to that grand and trium- 
phant exclamation of Jesus : " I thank thee, O Father, 
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these 
things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them 
unto babes." A religion which should be for the wise 
and thoughtful only, would be but an abstract specula- 
tion, fit to delight the finer spirits capable of rising 
to those rarefied heights ; it would be no divine mani- 
festation, coming within the grasp, or commending 
itself to the direct intuition of the human heart, 
whether that heart beat in hut or palace, under the 
peasant's smock or the philosopher's mantle. Jesus 
Christ might well glory in the divine popularity of 
His teaching, for this was a fact entirely new. Until 
He came, every system which had been raised above 
the gross superstitions of Paganism, had been only an 
abstract and obscure philosophy, reserved for a little 
company of disciples. 

It was this eclecticism which the teaching of the 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 9 

Gnostics sought to revive in the Church. Knowledge 
was with them everything ; Christianity, therefore, 
was a matter of knowledge, a science reserved to the 
initiate. This was a complete inversion of the Gospel 
method, and involved far more than an exclusive 
predominance granted to one element over another. 
In truth, religion cannot be transformed into a rigid 
science, except by laying at its basis the fatalistic 
conception of the universe. If everything is regulated 
by, and transpires according to inflexible laws, we have 
but to learn the construction of the machine, and the 
place in it assigned to us. But if, on the contrary, 
there exists a moral world, if the divine freedom 
appeals to the human, knowledge is comparatively 
insignificant ; obedience, surrender, is the essential. 
Assuredly, the opposition between these two concep- 
tions of religion is absolute ; it is, in truth, the 
opposition between the fatalistic speculation of Pagan 
naturalism, and the free and living faith of a true 
religion. 

Thus w^e see that by its exclusively intellectual 
tendency. Gnosticism abandons the noble banner of 
Christian spirituality, and returns to the dualism 
which was the curse of the ancient world. We shall 
observe how faithful it was to its principle, and with 
what often treacherous art it revived the old errors 
which had brought to ruin the most brilliant civilisation 
of the world. From this primary and purely specu- 
lative character, there resulted the haughty esoterism 
which reconstituted the aristocracy of intellect, and 
placed its barrier in the way of the young and the 
simple-hearted. It was found, in the end, that this 



10 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

privilege turned to the detriment of those who gloried 
in it, for the rare fruit which they had thus strained 
upwards to gather from the topmost branches of the 
tree of science, proved but a dry husk in their hands. 
Better a thousand times the homely bread broken so 
freely to the multitudes who gathered round the feet 
of Christ! 

The predominance of the intellectual and speculative 
element in Gnosticism, must not, however, lead us to 
conceive of it as a mere philosophical school, at least 
in the modern meaning of that term. It is erroneous 
to regard it as simply a philosophy of religion.* Such 
a conception belongs to later modes of thought, and is 
not in character with the troubled era which produced, 
beside the so-called Christian Gnosticism, so many 
analogous systems. Philosophy, especially since the 
time of Descartes, presents itself to us as entirely 
distinct from poetry, by the severity of its methods and 
the rigour of its deductions. It may indeed seek to 
bring into conformity with its systems, the symbols of 
an already established and well-defined religion. This 
is the attempt which has been made by the Hegelianism 
of our day, with singular boldness of interpretation. 
But philosophy does not create new symbols, or if it 
did, it would treat them as simple metaphors not to be 
seriously accepted. The various provinces of the mind 
of man are as distinct as the various countries of the 
world ; their boundaries are sharply marked. Imagina- 
tion finds no place in modern speculation, or, at least, 
it only lends to it types more or less transparent. It 
was far otherwise in the earliest age of the Christian era. 
''' This is Baur's idea in his remarkable work on Gnosticism. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. II 

The religion and philosophy of Paganism — both resting, 
it is true, on one and the same basis — were constantly 
confounded. The classic style, with its chaste and lucid 
forms, had vanished from the intellectual world, no less 
than from the realm of art. The East overspread the 
entire West with its myths, its sublime poetry, its 
heterogeneous faiths. Hence resulted a mental condi- 
tion not easily to be apprehended by us. In the world 
of ideas, the impossible had become the ordinary and 
familiar ; men's minds were intoxicated with the philter 
of the great goddess, who, under the name of Isis, or 
Cybele, or Diana of Ephesus, was simply nature deified. 
Placing the infinite beneath, and not above, men strove 
at any cost to discover it, to animate the idol they had 
made, as Pygmalion strove to chafe his marble into the 
warmth of life ; to nature was ascribed the creative power; 
it was supposed to contain hidden, mysterious forces, 
capable of producing universal life. These forces the 
eye of the imagination watches at work, like those 
primordial spirits which Faust beheld, "weaving the 
living robe of divinity upon the rushing loom of time." 
Thus does the most absolute naturalism merge into 
magic and theurgy, and lose itself in a fantastic dream, 
in which the strangest visions are taken for realities, 
and form the sequel to a close and abstract argument. 
A knowledge of what may be called the intellectual 
pathology of this period — a period unique in history — 
is necessary to enable us to appreciate, or even to under- 
stand, the appearance of such a phenomenon as Gnos- 
ticism. This is only one of the special manifestations 
of a far more extensive movement, or rather, it is the 
reaction of that movement on the heart of Christianity. 



12 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The second and third centuries of our era came, to a 
large extent, under these combined influences of philo- 
sophy and religion, and the result was a sort of mystical 
naturalism, the development of which requires explana- 
tion. The religions of nature, after having opened 
the cycle of Paganism, must needs close it again ; 
for, unaided, man can never wholly free himself 
from this circle ; the soul seeks and yearns after 
a higher and holier God; sometimes it may even 
rise to Him with a sudden soaring impulse, but it 
cannot sustain itself at such a giddy height; it 
soon falls back under the dominion of natural forces, 
and returns to its former worship, but with a soul rest- 
less and dissatisfied. The old religion has lost that 
fresh and artless enchantment which breathes in the 
songs of the Vedas. The melancholy strain predomi- 
nates, as at the close of a gay festival at Rome or 
Athens, when the crowns of the guests fall faded at 
their feet. Man is no more content with the natural 
phenomena of the bright and fruitful dawning, of the 
fertilising rain, and the fire " which quivers on the 
hearth like a bird of golden wing." Beneath the out- 
ward manifestation, he seeks the deep, hidden, bound- 
less cause of all ; he falls into a crushing pantheism, 
which brings him into the presence, not of a living 
God, but of a yawning abyss, in which there is neither 
beginning nor end, where everything is moving in one 
incessant process of evolution. The religion of India, 
especially in its final form of Buddhism, had given the 
most perfect expression to pantheistic naturalism ; this 
was its final utterance. Its influence was therefore 
great in an age when the ancient barriers, by which 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. I3 

nations were divided, were everywhere falling. It 
exercised an unquestionably wider sway than Parseeism, 
which was less inclined to asceticism and ecstacy — the 
two wings, as they were increasingly regarded, by which 
the soul might be raised above the changing and perish- 
able. Again, the religion of Zoroaster itself had a 
tendency to modification, as we have seen in tracing 
out the development of the worship of Mithra. The 
Greco-Roman religion, especially in Asia Minor and in 
Egypt, was largely transfused with oriental pantheism, 
which, with its elastic mythology, would bear any 
translation. Judaism had not escaped the influence 
of this wide-spread movement ; even in the land of the 
prophets, in view of the sanctuary where all the 
national traditions were deposited, it had breathed the 
air which had swept over the great forests of India. 
Essenism was a sort of Jewish Buddhism, which carried 
into the burning solitudes of the Dead Sea, the same 
craving for self-annihilation. 

The philosophy of the time — that philosophy, at least, 
which was not satisfied either with Epicureanism, or 
with the universal scepticism of the new Academy — 
endeavoured to reduce this naturalistic Pantheism to 
a system, and it had at its disposal the marvellous 
instrument of the logic of Plato and Aristotle, the bequest 
to it of the great classic school. We have already 
described elsewhere, the great Alexandrine movement, 
which issued in Neo-Platonism, and which may be 
regarded as parallel with Gnosticism, since it sprang 
from the same influences, and reveals the same ten- 
dency. This is to Platonism what Gnosticism is to 
Christianity, with this difference : that the system of 



14 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Plato lent itself far more readily than the Gospel to 
such an interpretation, because of the oriental element 
which so strongly pervaded it ; nothing was needed, but 
the withdrawal of the moral character, to transform it 
into a purely Asiatic theosophy. Plutarch himself 
belonged to the same school. This son of Greece, who 
seems to have made it his task to collect assiduously all 
the treasures of the East, is in reality a deserter from 
the West, who has retained only the glorious memories 
and the luminous language of his country. From a 
philosophical point of view, he is in truth a perfect 
Eastern. The true God is to him a God hidden, incom- 
prehensible, whom no creature can know, so much so 
that a mediating divinity, symbolised in his view by 
the goddess Isis, was necessary to effect the organisa- 
tion of matter. The soul attains to the Deity only by 
means of ecstacy or contemplation, thus emancipating 
itself from all that is corporeal.* We know what 
development Plutarch gave to the theory of secondary 
deities and of demons. Even the Stoics, those apostles 
of stern resistance, who seem at the very antipodes of 
the despotic East, did not fail to work out, in their own 
way, the theme of pantheistic naturalism, and to 
supply elements for the lucubrations of Gnosticism. 
By uniting matter and reason in the first principle of 
things, they opened the way for all the combinations 
of the doctrine of emanation. But the great precursor 
of Gnosticism was Philo, who, himself the adherent 
of a monotheistic religion — the very religion which had 
prepared the way for Christianity — was obliged to 

* Ritter, " Histoire de la Philosophic Ancienne," Tissot's transla- 
tion, Vol. IV. pp. 416, 417. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. I5 

submit his creed, as a Jew, to the same process of 
elaboration, which was necessary for translating the 
Gospel into an oriental theosophy. It is needless 
for us to dwell here upon a doctrine, the principal 
outlines of which we have already traced. Starting 
from the idea of a hidden, incomprehensible God, who 
has no contact with the finite, it developed most pro- 
minently the theory of intermediary divinities, who, by 
means of emanation, were able to produce the lower 
world, which the supreme God could not even touch. 
This was the world of the Word, or of ideas, which 
never reaches the reality of personal existence, notwith- 
standing all the striking and sublime metaphors of Philo. 
His final goal, like that of the whole East, was asceti- 
cism ; he would that " as the cicada feeds on the dew, 
so the soul should live by ecstacy." In vain did he 
exhaust the sacred texts, and borrow from the Old 
Testament its most lofty images ; he none the less 
belied its essence, by substituting salvation by means 
of knowledge and contemplation, for the moral recon- 
ciliation proclaimed in doctrine and figure, by all the 
voices of the prophets. The system of Philo was a 
true Jewish Gnosticism ; and in combination with the 
various elements we have rapidly indicated, it reappears 
substantially in all the various forms of Gnosticism. 

If we seek to distinguish in these various forms the 
several constituent elements, we discover the three 
great schools of thought of the period — Hellenism, 
Orientalism, and Christianity. From the first of these, 
Gnosticism derived its name, and that purely intel- 
lectual character which reduces religion to a mere 
speculation of the reason. From the second, it borrowed 



l6 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

its pantheistic naturalism, full of a sombre sadness 
and a bitter despair. From the third, it derived, in 
a changed and mutilated form, the notion of redemp- 
tion; and this is the distinguishing point between 
Christian Gnosticism and the Gnosticism of Philo. 
We are conscious that the great crisis of the Gospel 
has intervened between the two doctrines : it is no 
longer possible to rest satisfied with a simple expla- 
nation of the universe, such as is given in the books 
of the Alexandrine Jew. The work of Christ has 
produced a great convulsion in the minds of men. It 
must, at any cost, find a place in a system which 
makes any claim to interpret the Gospel, and if that 
system still bears the blemish of an ineffaceable Pan- 
theism, it must spend its strength in vain efforts to 
despoil the religion of love and liberty of its true cha- 
racter. Redemption must be treated as Philo treated 
the free creation ; it must be reduced to a mere cos- 
mological fact. 

Before entering on the classification and exposition 
of the various systems of Gnosticism, we must first 
point out two general principles common to them all. 
They all incline to Docetism ; they have a tendency 
to resolve a tangible reality into a mere semblance 
(Ao^a). This is a natural consequence of the prin- 
ciples of dualism. Associating evil with the corporeal 
element, they cannot admit that the Redeemer can 
have had any true contact with matter; they hold that 
He can only have assumed a seeming, impalpable, 
finer than aerial form, the shadow of a shade. Neither 
the incarnation nor the crucifixion can enter as actual 
facts into the Gnostic theory. Nor is it the corporeal 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. I7 

element alone which is opposed to the absolute good ; 
all that is finite, limited, transitory, is placed in the 
same category. Contingent realities are of no value ; 
individual beings are as the foam formed on the ocean 
and melting into it again. The one essential is the 
idea, the knowledge, the key of the universal enigma ; 
history is but its fluctuating, fleeting expression. Hence 
the second trait, common to all Gnostic systems, the 
contempt of history, which becomes a sort of parable 
or mythology, designed to translate the ideal world into 
visible symbols. This explains the really wild licence 
of Gnostic symbolism. It imagines it has exalted the 
Gospel, because it has given it an illimitable sphere, and 
made the universe its arena ; it does not see that it has 
lowered it by all the distance which separates the 
moral from the physical, since it reduces it to a mere 
theogony after the manner of Hesiod. Not only does 
it appropriate the facts in order to mould them at its 
will, but it takes no less liberty with the texts, by 
means of a perpetual system of allegorising, which 
gives full play to the imagination. When words are 
treated merely as the medium of preconceived ideas, 
they lend themselves to every invention of the mind ; 
they may be played with like the pieces on a 
draught-board. 

In employing so arbitrary an exegesis, the Gnostics, 
as Irenseus complained, " tore the truth limb from 
limb."* '' They are," he adds, " like a man, who, 
possessing the likeness of a king made by a great 
artist with precious stones, should remove those pre- 
cious stones, and, readjusting them, should clumsily 

* AvovTtQ TO. fjckXr] rrjg aXr]6dag. (" Contra Hseres.," I. I.) 

3 



l8 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

produce the image of a fox or of a dog, all the while 
pretending to have preserved the noble outline, because 
the same jew^els still sparkle before our eyes." 

Faithful to the eclecticism of the time. Gnosticism 
gathered symbols and allegories on all hands ; it drew 
from Pagan sources no less than from the sacred books 
of the Jews and the Christians. The fundamental 
theme of all these systems is the production of finite 
and contingent existence by means of emanation, or 
again by the blending of the Divine principle with 
eternal matter ; the multiplied lives thus generated 
all return to the original unity; the Divine spark within 
them seeks its source again. Between the sphere 
of the Divine and the sphere of matter, lies the 
region of the intermediary powers, which serve as 
links between the two worlds ; this is the region 
of the psychical. Naturalistic Pantheism has an 
^infinite variety of forms, but these are its fundamental 
principles. 

The main symbols designed to embody this universal 
element of Gnosticism may be classed under a few 
dominant types. The religions of Nature first of 
all deified the stars, because of the great influence 
they exert upon our planet; the sun was long the great 
divinity of Asia, the burning focus, as it were, whence 
emanated both death and life. The sidereal myths 
also play an important part in Gnosticism ; the stars 
represent in that system the inferior gods presiding 
over the world of change and of matter. Number 
is the most elementary and obvious principle of order 
and harmony in the life of Nature ; it expresses the 
measure and almost the idea itself. Oriental Paganism 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. I9 

was led into the complicated calculations of astrology, 
whence it thought itself capable of deducing the law 
of our destinies. Pythagorean philosophy was entirely 
constructed on this basis. We shall see how the 
Gnostics have developed that which may be called the 
mythology of numbers, and what place was occupied 
in their systems by the Ogdoas, the Hebdomas, and 
all the numerical combinations. Anthropomorphism 
is the most natural of all symbols ; hence it filled a 
prominent place in almost all idolatrous religions, long 
before it received the brilliant and poetic transfor- 
mation of Greek humanism. Pantheistic naturalism, 
moreover, may be said to be perpetually under the 
spell of a voluptuous enchantment ; it gravitates 
altogether towards material pleasures, and delights in 
representing these to itself by the coarsest symbols. 
Transferring the relations of the sexes to the sphere 
of the gods, it always conceives of its divinities by 
couples or Syzygice. Whatever attempts are made 
to refine it in the course of ages, it undergoes no 
true change. It reappears in the so-called Christian 
Gnosticism with the same tendencies, filling the void 
regions of the absolute with those sensual conceptions 
which had degraded all the ancient mythologies; nor 
does Gnosticism scruple yet further to draw largely 
from these mythologies, both from the pure and impure, 
to enrich and adorn its allegories. From Judaism 
it borrows the ladder of light, on which the angels 
ascend and descend, setting up, in the immensities 
of space, that scale of emanations, which reaches from 
the infinite heights of silence down to the manifold 
forms of material existence. The Old Testament also 

3* 



20 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

supplies elements for its unworthy travesty of the God 
who formed our w^orld and all the lower orders of beings 
which live on the dust of the earth. The notion of 
redemption, not less distorted than that of creation, 
is taken from the Gospel, and the history of Jesus 
becomes the most fruitful and also the most strangely 
falsified of the Gnostic symbols.* Thus the four 
principal sources of the symbolism of the Gnostics are 
astrology, numerical combinations, anthropomorphism, 
and the history of religions. 

Such, in its general characteristics, is the language 
used in the schools, which are at the same time 
sanctuaries, for the symbols are not mere metaphors ; 
they are accepted literally ; the heated imagination 
lays hold of them ; the mind surrendered to unhealthy 
excitement, no longer distinguishes between the con- 
ventional sign and the thing signified ; Gnosticism 
believes in the sign, as the Canaanite believed in 
his Baal, and the Egyptian in his bull Apis. 

Many attempts have been made to classify rigorously 
the various Gnostic systems. Some have sought the 
principle by which to distinguish them in their historical 
and national origin ;t but in an age of universal syn- 
cretism, when all barriers were broken down, a 
difference of nationality did not suffice to constitute 
a difference of tendency, so much the less as Gnosticism 
only came into being in countries which were all alike 
under the influence of the East. Others, identifying 
Gnosticism with the philosophy of religion, have 

■I" See Baur's " Die Christliche Gnosis," on this symbolism of 
Gnosticism, pp. 230-240. 

f This is the theory of M. Matter's learned work. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISxM. 21 

divided it into three principal schools, according to the 
place assigned by each to one of the three great forms 
of the religion of the past. We have first the systems, 
like those of Basilides and Valentinus, which acknow- 
ledged some kind of legitimacy in the old faiths, and 
a gradual evolution of the religious consciousness. 
Next come those which accept only one form of the 
ancient religions, namety, Judaism ; this is the Gnos- 
ticism of the Clementines. Lastly, we have the doctrine 
of the Ophites, and the far higher teaching of Mar- 
cion, who holds that truth finds its final expression in 
Jesus Christ, and that all that went before was but 
frightful error.* This classification errs by considering 
Gnosticism too exclusively as a philosophical move- 
ment, and not enough as a combination of religion 
and speculation. The most reasonable division of the 
Gnostic systems seems to us that which takes as its 
basis the position assumed by them towards the God 
of the Old Testament. t The question is twofold. It 
comprehends not only the degree of respect with which 
the revelations and institutions of Judaism are regarded, 
but also the more or less absolute character of the 
dualism of the system. In truth, the God of the Old 
Testament is the God who created the heavens and the 
earth. If He is regarded not as a God hostile to the 
supreme Deity, but simply as a subordinate divinity, 
as in the " Timaeus" of Plato, the world which is His 
creation is not under the ban of a positive curse ; there 
is still something good in it ; its history, before Christ, is 

* This is Baur^s classification. (" Die Christliche Gnosis," 97-121. 
f This is Neander s classification. (" Genetische Entwickelung 
der Vornehmsten Gnostischen Systeme, Kirchengeschichte," p. 430.) 



22 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

not of necessity a tissue of unrelieved and unmitigated 
evil. On the other hand, if the God who created the 
earth and the heavens, is a God absolutely evil, and at 
war with the higher world, then creation is in itself a 
curse, and His reign is but the continuous evolution 
of evil. In the former systems, the world is not the 
product of an eternal principle, opposed to the supreme 
Being ; it is itself contained in the depths of the primal 
abyss ; it is produced, doubtless, by a series of down- 
ward steps, but obviously it is not in itself absolutely 
evil, as it is in the second class of Gnostic systems, in 
which it is treated as the issue of a principle eternally 
distinct from the supreme Deity. 

We see that the notion of the Creator God, or the 
Demmrgos, marks with great distinctness the line of 
demarcation between the various schools, although 
there is no radical difference between them, because 
no Gnostic school recognises a free creation. 

§ I. The Gnostics of the First School. Valentimis and 
his Followers. 

In this sketch of Gnosticism, we pass by scarcely- 
developed systems, like that of Basilides, which compare 
the first principle to a confused germ, from which all 
the various substances are successively evolved by 
a sort of mysterious disintegration. 

With Valentinus, Gnosticism assumes the form of 
a complete system, coherent in all its parts ; the fusion 
between the Christian and Pagan elements is effected 
with profound art. All the lines of revelation are pro- 
longed into indefinite perspective ; behind the foreground 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 23 

of the Gospel narrative, extends a radiant and receding 
distance, which affects the mind, and especially the 
imagination, with a sense of dizziness. The Christian 
consciousness is indeed soon able to dispel the illusion; 
it is not slow to recognise that this brilliant metaphy- 
sical vista minifies that which it pretends to magnify, 
since it destroys the distinction between the creation 
and the Creator; but let that voice of the Christian 
soul be but silent, and the illusion is complete. It is 
easy to understand how, from these giddy heights, the 
son of the East or of Egypt might look down with 
pitying contempt on the doctrine of the Church, with 
its' sharply-drawn and simple outlines. Valentinus 
knew how to cast over his philosophy the veil of a false 
and flowery poetry, in perfect harmony with the taste 
of an age of decline, which could no longer appreciate 
the pure and quiet beauty of high art. In the same 
manner, he transfused into all his teaching, that sense 
of the bitter and tragic in existence, which was the 
distinctive feature of the Roman decadence ; the over- 
whelming sadness of this period of universal decline, 
which seemed to close for ever the age of strength 
and health and youth, embodied itself in cunning 
symbols, and lent to them a morbid charm. Valentinus 
was, after his manner, a great lyric poet, expressing 
the sorrows of his time in the eccentric form which 
pleased him best. Moreover, all this sadness might 
be lightly accepted, because it did not lead to humility, 
nor call for repentance ; it left erect the great idol of 
Paganism — humanity, which could behold itself deified 
upon the naked summits of the Valentinian metaphysics, 
no less than upon the golden heights of Olympus. Man 



24 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

was still set forth as the most perfect realisation of the 
divine; the fall was only a necessary transition from 
the divine infinite to the human finite ; redemption 
required neither repentance nor sacrifice, but simply 
the return of the finite to the infinite, and especially 
the knowledge of that return, which is Gnosticism. 
Salvation is then here also a matter of knowledge. The 
Pagan of yesterday might find such a reconstruction 
of his theories cheap, and easier a hundred times than 
the inward renewal, the baptism of water and fire, 
which begins with penitent tears, and is perfected 
under the consuming action of the spirit of holiness. 
It was more convenient, while, at the same time, it 
seemed more poetical, to transfer the drama of redemp- 
tion to the realms of the infinite, than to give it our 
sinful earth as its theatre, and as its actors free moral 
beings, called to a death to self at the foot of the Cross. 
We know but little about Valentinus himself. Ac- 
cording to Epiphanius, he was a native of the shores 
of Egypt,* and received his philosophical training at 
Alexandria. Thence he is supposed to have come to 
Rome under Antoninus Pius, and only established 
himself as the head of a school in Cyprus. Tertullian 
asserts that he sought the episcopate, and that the 
check given to his ambition drove him into the 
ranks of the enemies of the Church. There is nothing 
to sustain this accusation, which the fiery African may 
easily have accepted in the heat of passion. There is 
no necessity for assigning petty spleen as the cause of 
the direction taken by the mind of Valentinus. He 
followed what has been one of the most enticing tracks 
"- Epiphanius, "Contra Hasres,," I. 31. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 25.. 

of speculation in all ages, and was led into it by the 
bent of his own genius. There is no injustice in ac- 
cusing him of a lofty pride of intellect. The textual 
fragment of one of his letters, which Epiphanius has 
preserved, breathes the most arrogant contempt for 
simple faith. " I come to speak to you," he says, "of 
things ineffable, secret, higher than the heavens, which 
cannot be understood by principalities or powers, nor 
by anything beneath, nor by any creature, unless it be 
by those whose intelligence can know no change."* 
We can fancy we see this man, as Tertullian shows 
him to us, knitting his brow, and saying, with an air 
of mystery, "This is profound. "t 

The doctrine of Valentinus is far more easily epito- 
mised than that of most of the Gnostics, because it 
forms one systematic whole. I It is not, properly 
speaking, dualistic, since his great aim is to show by 
what process of degeneracy, matter proceeds from the 
first principle ; it is also moderate in its estimate of 
Judaism and of its God, and consequently in the 
sentence it passes upon creation. It is Platonist rather 
than Aristotelian, for it attaches great importance to 
the ideal world. Human history, before it is enacted 

"^ Epiphanius, "Contra H^res., adv. Valentin.," I. 31. 
f "Hoc altum est." (Tertullian, "Adv. Valentin.," I. 37.) 
I The first book of Irenaeus' treatise, "Contra H^eres.," is an 
important authority, as is also the passage of Epiphanius (I. 31), and 
that of Theodoret, which is very clear. But the " Philosophoumena" 
(VI. 29-39) supply on this point also the desiderated light with 
a distinctness that leaves nothing to be desired. Naturally, the . 
exponents of the Valentinian system, who were not able to 
avail themselves of this incomparable authority, must be henceforth 
inadequate, though much may be gained from the works of Baur 
and Neander, already quoted. 



26 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

in our world of mire and darkness, is unfolded in the 
higher sphere of the ideal. The tragedy of existence 
is played in three acts : first, in the highest region, 
which is called the Pleroma ; then in the intermediate 
sphere ; and lastly, upon earth. It is in substance the 
same drama throughout ; since it always treats of the 
trouble under which the universe groans, by reason 
of the aspiration of the finite after the infinite, trouble 
which resolves itself into the universal harmony, of 
which knowledge is the master-key ; it is Gnosticism 
which reveals to every creature his true rank and 
destiny. The originality of the Valentinian teaching 
consists in its having depicted, with impassioned elo- 
quence, the agony and ardent yearning of creatures 
separated from the absolute principle of their being, 
and in its having thus brought the pantheistic theosophy 
as close as possible to the idea of redemption, while 
yet failing to reach it. It is strange to see a system, 
idealist at its commencement, yielding to the influence 
of the grossest mythologies of the East, to such a 
degree as to borrow from them the idea of those 
pairings, or Syzygics, which in these occupy such a 
conspicuous place ; nor is even the semblance of 
a metaphor retained; the allegory is carried to its 
furthest limits, and offers dangerous food for sensual 
imaginations. • Thus the most purely ethereal and the 
most coarsely material elements are blended in these 
half-philosophical, half-legendary conceptions. 

The principle of all things — the Immortal, the Inef- 
fable, He who deserves the name of Father in the 
absolute sense — is an unfathomable abyss.* He is 

* Movdc dyevvrjTOQ d(p9apT0(:, yovifiog Trarrjp. (" Phil.," VI. 29.) 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 27 

linked neither to space nor time ; He is above all 
thought, and, as it were, shut up within Himself. 
Around Him is eternal silence. The Father is not 
willing to remain in solitude, for He is all love, and 
love can only exist where it has an object.* Thus He 
produced by emanation the Intellect and the Truth, 
The Intellect is the consciousness which the Father 
has of Himself; it is the only Son, His living image, 
who alone makes known the Father. The Intellect is 
at the same time the Truth, because of this identity. 
The Intellect and the Truth produce the Word and the 
Life. This is the great quaternion of the absolute. 
The Intellect finds its perfect expression in the Word; 
that expression is not a mere symbol, since it is also 
the Life. The Word and the Life produce Man and 
the Church. What does this mean, if not that the 
absolute can only be fully manifested in humanity? 
The transcendently divine blends with the essentially 
human. The Intellect and the Truth produce for the 
glory of the Father ten emanations, which are called 
jEons or Eternities. The Word and the Life produce 
twelve emanations, a number less perfect than the ten. 
The supernal sphere of the Pleroma is then complete. t 
Thus there rises into the infinite that ladder of emana- 
tions which Tertullian called, in his powerful language, 
the geinonicE of the Deity. | Even into this highest 
and ideal sphere, discord enters. This is inevitable, 
•unless perfect equilibrium be maintained between the 
twofold force which animates the jEons, which are, 
on the one hand, drawn towards their centre — that is, 

* 'Ayc'nrr] rjv oXog, r) St dydrrT] ovk iariv dyaTTT], edv jxij ?} to dyaTibjfiivov. 
("Phil.," VI. 39.) f Ibid. VI. 30. | Tertullian, "Adv. Valentin.," I. 36. 



28 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

to the abyss from which they spring ; and, on the other 
hand, are subject to the centrifugal power of projection 
or emanation. They proceed from the infinite and tend 
to it, yet they are not the infinite, and are not to be 
confounded with it. The moment that the equih- 
brium of the two forces ceases, the harmony of the 
Pleroma is broken. This catastrophe is brought about 
by the last of the twelve Mons, produced by the Word 
and the Life, which is the twenty-eighth emanation. 
This JEon, finding herself on the confines of the region 
of light, is consumed with the desire to be reunited to 
the Father ; she is not content with the portion of the 
divine essence which has been allotted to her as her 
share ; she compares it with the infinite, the absolute, 
and deems it a poor and miserable heritage ; she aspires 
therefore to lose herself in the silent abyss of the first 
principle. This last of the ^ons of the Pleroma, 
which is called Sophia, or Wisdom, has yet larger 
ambitions ; she is desirous, in imitation of the first 
principle, to become herself a producer, but to produce 
alone, without the aid of the ^on, which forms with 
her a Syzygia, or divine couple.* But the uncreated 
can alone produce under such conditions ; for all 
inferior orders of being, two elements are required 
for the production of anything — the feminine element, 
or the vague and formless substance, and the masculine 
or formative element. t Hence the necessity of Syzygice, 
Now, the Sophia is the feminine JEon. She is therefore 
capable of producing only a formless being — an abor- 

* 'B.9s\r}(Te {xiixijaaaOaiTuv rrarepa kciI yivvTiaai Kci6' tavryv o/%a TovavZvycv. 
("Phil.," VI. 30.) 

+ 'Ev to7q yevvrjTolg rb fiev OrjXv 'ioTiv oha'iaQ TrpoXrjriKov, to ds appiv 
fjopfojTiKov. (Ibid., VI. 30.) 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 29 

tion.* In her rashness, she has broken the harmony 
of the Pleroma; discord has entered, and it is impossible 
to tell where it may end. All the iEons supplicate the 
Father to arrest it by consoling Sophia, who bursts 
into tears and groans at sight of the shapeless being 
to which, in her isolation and impotence, she has given 
birth. t The salvation of the Pleroma is contingent 
on the production of a new emanation. The Intellect 
and the Truth give birth to the Christ and the Holy 
Spirit ; the number of the ^ons being thus raised to 
thirty. These two new ^ons represent the power of 
restoration of harmony, and order. They begin by 
ejecting from the Pleroma the mal-formed product of 
Wisdom ; the Father sets up the hoimdary, called also 
the Cross; He places it between the higher world and 
the lower, to which belongs the wretched abortion of 
which Wisdom is the parent; this abortion is designated 
by the name Achamoth. The Christ and the Holy 
Spirit give it a form, and save it from losing itself in 
utter confusion.! Then they return to the Pleroma, 
and instruct the ^ons in the eternal order of things 
and the grandeur of their origin, for they all proceed 
from the same principle. The Pleroma, thus delivered 
from rash ambitions, is restored to harmony, and praises 
the Father. All the ^Eons together produce, as a pledge 
of this harmony, and as a testimony of their gratitude, 
one last ^on, who is called Jesus, or the Saviour, 
and who is the fruit of the Pleroma. § Thus is 
completed the first part of this trilogy, which com- 

* Ovaiav dfiop(pov. (" Phil.," VI. 30.) 

t "EicXaLe yap kuI tcaTivSvpero. (Ibid., VI. 3 1.) 

X "Hv 6 xpi-^rbg kiibpipixxre. (Ibid.) 

§ 'O KoivoQ rov n\r)p6}jxaToa Kapirbg 6 'l)]aovg. (Ibid., VI. 32.) 



30 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

prehends three worlds, like the poem of Dante, and 
which only reproduces the same drama under different'^ 
forms. 

Let us attempt to translate all this ontological 
mythology into the exact style of metaphysics, bearing 
in mind that Gnosticism never separated ideas from 
the legendary tissue in which it embodied them. The 
absolute must necessarily emerge from its state of 
immobility ; a hidden principle is at work in the dark 
abyss, and elicits from it the universal life, which 
developes itself by successive stages. But this mani- 
festation of the absolute issues of necessity in an 
imperfect life ; from this fatal imperfection results a 
sorrowful yearning after the infinite, and this aspiration 
only finds its goal and satisfaction in the knowledge of 
the eternal and normal relation of all beings with 
the absolute, as derived from it, and still constituting 
a part of it. The absolute is found again in them, 
or rather they are found in it ; it follows that the finite 
and imperfect existence appears in the brightness of 
the Pleroma, 'Mike a little spot upon a white tunic." 
Thus salvation in this higher sphere of life proceeds 
from knowledge {gnosis). The Christ is the deter- 
mining, formative power, the revealer by pre-eminence. 

Let us pass on to the second act which is played 
in the vague regions bordering on the Pleroma. Here 
the poetic and metaphysical genius of Valentinus 
is most fully manifested. Creation and redemption are 
one and the same to him, for our world was only 
produced for the consolation and restoration of that 
unhappy son of Wisdom who, cut off from the region 
of light, yet could not lose the recollection of it. The 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 3I 

Christ of the Pleroma, and the Holy Spirit, have 
left him to himself, after giving him a definite form ; 
he cannot be consoled for the loss of that bright 
vision ; the sweet fragrance of their presence abides 
with him, and he cries with tears for their return. 

The Sophia of the Pleroma has communicated all 
the fire which consumed her to Achamoth, that shape- 
less product of her daring aspirations; he again, 
following her example, darts upwards towards the 
infinite, painfully beating his wings against the im- 
passable boundary, and crying out passionately for the 
Divine light and life.* He is the meanest creature 
upon our world, and yet there is none more noble 
by reason of his ardent longing after God, and that 
ceaseless, sacred yearning which will not let him rest. 
Sometimes a bright smile breaks through his tears ; it 
comes at the recollection of the brief glimpse that 
was granted him of the Pleroma. t How can we fail 
to recognise in him, the image or personification of that 
race of fallen gods who, as they move on earth, carry 
with them the memory of their heavenly origin ? Never 
was the exile of the soul, the daughter of the 
light, described in grander poetry. Our world is born 
of the agonies of Achamoth ; of these the tissue 
of earthly existence is woven ; his broken heart throbs 
in all nature. Hence the universal sigh which seems 
to swell the bosom of earth as sobs upheave the heart 
of a weeping child. 

The Pleroma has compassion on Achamoth. It 

* 'EXvTrrjOrj Kai kv cnropia kysvero. (" Phil.," VI. 32.) 
f All that relates to the sadness of Achamoth is fully treated by 
Irenseus. (" Contra Haeres.," I. chap, i, edit. Feuardentius, p. 20.) 
Hots fikv hXau Trork d' av ttoXlv k^o^fiTOi -Kork dux^lro /cat k^eXa. 



32 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

sends him Jesus, or the Saviour— that blessed fruit 
of its own harmony. Jesus delivers Achamoth from 
the burden of his griefs, and after having drawn these 
from his breast, he gives them the form of a concrete 
substance. Thus is produced the lower world, which 
will become in its turn the scene of the same sorrows 
and deliverances as -the two higher regions. The 
sombre sadness of Achamoth becomes the material 
element; his despair is the demonaical essence; his 
fear and aspiration give birth to the intermediate or 
psychical element, which is neither matter nor spirit.* 
Nothing could be more ingenious than this attempt 
to resolve the dualism, which had so long weighed 
upon the thought of the ancients, by means of this 
sort of crystallisation or petrifaction of the feelings 
of the exiled ^on. According to Irenseus, Valentinus 
carried this poetical theory of the creation still further. 
The streams and fountains which we behold are the 
tears of Achamoth, while the soft light which gladdens 
us is the radiation of his joy, when he recalls the 
visit of the heavenly emanations. t The Demiitrgos has 
a place in this system ; he is born of the terror of the 
iEon, the salutary fear which is the beginning of 
wisdom, since it accompanies the ardent supplication 
which is granted by the Pleroma. While Achamoth 
occupies the Ogdoas, or the heavenly Jerusalem, the 
Demiurgos is consigned to the Hehdomas, composed 
of seven gods, which are themselves seven ^ons. 
These symbolical figures mark the difference of the 

*''EiTo'ir]aiv tKarrjvai to. TrdOr] dir' avTfjg Kai eTroirjaev avrd vTroaraTiKag 
ovoiaq, Kai rbv fJLSv (p6€ov ■•pvxiicrjv STroiijctv ovaiav, rrjv de \v7rt}v vXiktjv, 
Hiv Ss cLTTopiav dai[x6v(x)v. (" Phil.," VI. 33.) 

f Irenaeus, " Contra Haeres.," I. chap. i. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 33 

two regions, for the Ogdoas is the sphere where dwells 
the Spirit, raised immeasurably above the psychical, 
who has produced seventy beings which share in his 
spiritual essence. The Demiurgus, as his name indi- 
cates, is the creator and organiser of our world ; he 
believes himself to be its supreme God, and so declares 
himself to Moses and to all -the men of the Old 
Testament. " I am God," he says, " and there is none 
beside me."* Men were created by the Demiurgus; 
their body is composed of material elements, but their 
soul is of psychical essence. t Achamoth, unknown to 
the earth-god, communicates some sparks of the Spirit 
to a select number of men. These constitute the 
moral aristocracy of mankind ; they are the spiritual 
in opposition to the psychical and material beings. 
Men are thus classed by the predominance in their 
nature of one or other of the three elements which 
constitute this sphere of existence. J 

The prophets of the Old Testament were only the 
organs of the Demiurgus. In the fulness of time the 
Redeemer appeared; He is the third manifestation 
of the power of restoration and of harmony, conse- 
quently, the third Saviour. The school of Valentinus 
is divided on the question of the nature of His body. 
The Westerns ascribed it to a psychical origin ; they 
supposed it to have been formed by the Demiurgus, and 
held that the spirit only entered into it at His baptism. 
The Easterns, on the contrary, pronounced the body 
to be, from its origin, of spiritual essence. Absolute doce- 
tism was the consequence of this conception. Both 

* Ou^ev oldev 6 SrifiLOvpyoc oXloc. (''Phil.," V"i. 33.) 
f Ibid, vi. 33. I Ibid., vi. 34. 

4 



34 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

schools, however, admitted the miraculous birth of the 
Saviour. 

Messiah passed through the w^omb of Mary, '' as 
water through a channel."* He enlightened the Demi- 
urgus as to the existence of the Pleroma, and then 
carried the true light to the spiritual portion of 
mankind, which was destined to receive it. Achamoth 
sees the gates of everlasting light open before him, and 
forgets his long distress. The Demiurgus takes his 
place in the Ogdoas ; the spiritual men — the true 
Gnostics — united to the beings emanated from Acha- 
moth, are delivered for ever from that which is 
perishable, and enter into the ineffable blessedness 
of the Pleroma. Matter vanishes, consumed by fire. 
It is no longer more than a shadow upon the bright 
substance of supreme felicity.t In all the schools 
of Gnosticism we see that illumination is the substitute 
for redemption. Sacrifice, in any true sense, has no 
place where sin has no reality. Everything hinges 
on the relations of the finite with the infinite, and 
not on those of the moral creature with the Holy 
God. Thus all this brilliant metaphysical speculation 
is hung over an empty place ; it issues in a hopeless 
fatalism, in an absolute and capricious predestination, 
which limits salvation to the chosen ones of Wisdom, 
the sons of light. It is indeed worthy of observation, 
that predestination made its first appearance in 
Christianity under the garb of heresy. It was the very 
soul of Gnosticism. "The Valentinians," says Irengeus, 
"feel themselves under no necessity to attain by 

* TtyevvrjTai 6 'JrjcrovQ Sia Nap'iag. (" Phil.," vi. 35,) 'h]aovv did 
Mapiag ojg dici crujXfjvog. (Epiphanius, " Contra Haeres.," 31.) 
f " Phil," vi. 36. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 35 

their deeds to the spiritual nature ; they possess it 
inherently, and regard themselves as perfectly saved 
by divine right. Just as gold, which has been buried 
in clay, does not thus forfeit its beauty, but retains 
its true nature unalloyed, so do these men receive no 
hurt from all the sensual indulgences which they allow 
themselves, but preserve their spiritual essence."* 

The Old Testament, and the God whom it reveals, 
are not treated by Valentinus with much reverence. 
The Demiurgus, however, sins only through ignorance; 
he possesses a relative truth. He himself is to be 
raised to the borders of the Pleroma. There is not, 
then, positive and absolute opposition between the two 
Testaments, notwithstanding the scorn of the sect 
with regard to Hebrew prophecy. 

So bold and poetical a system as that of Valentinus, 
opened a large career for inventive and subtle imagina- 
tions. The fundamental theme was variously modified, 
according to the caprice of each. We need not enter 
in detail into these idle vagaries of the mind, carried 
about by every passing wind, without the steadying 
ballast of the moral life. Among the chief disciples 
of Valentinus, may be named Bardesanes of Edessa, 
Marcus, Ptolemy, and Heracleon. These confined 
themselves to making variations on the theme of 
these tortuous metaphysics. These systems passed 
by the most sublime and original portion of the 
doctrine of Valentinus, that which relates to the fall 
and the aspirations of Achamoth, that child of Wisdom 
placed on the borders of the Pleroma, as the poetical 

* M?) Sid TTpd^tiOQ aXkd Sid to ^ucret Trvev iJ^ariKovg elvai. (Ireilceus, 
I. I. p. 26.) 

A * 



36 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

personification of our fall, and who is ever divided 
between bitter memories and ardent longings. This 
gap is filled by a curious anonymous document in 
the Coptic language, lately discovered. The date 
is doubtful ; it evidently belongs to the period when 
Valentinian Gnosticism had reached its full develop- 
ment, — about the close, therefore, of the second century. 
It is entitled " Pistis Sophia," the Believing Wisdom.* 
The general dogmas of the Valentinian system are 
found in it, though half buried in a luxurious and 
monotonous vegetation. The theme is always the 
same — a gnosis, or hidden doctrine, which brings 
salvation by simple illumination. Jesus Christ returns 
from the heavens into which He had reascended, 
and appears to His disciples on the Mount of Olives, 
to reveal to them the sublime mysteries of the truth. 
They form around Him the inner and privileged circle 
of the spiritual ones, whose charge it is to transmit 
this hidden manna to the pneumatic men of future 
generations. All these revelations revolve around the 
destiny of Sophia, who here symbolises, far more 
clearly than among the early Valentinians, the melan- 
choly condition of the human soul, which, as the 
punishment for having sought to overpass the limits 
of its original sphere, is tormented by the cosmical 
powers, among which we recognise the Demiurgus. 
He produces, by emanation, a terrible power with a lion 
face, which, surrounded by other similar emanations, 
terrifies the noble and ardent exiled Sophia, even 
in the dark regions of matter, flashing before her 

- "Pistis Sophia." "Opus gnosticum e codice manuscripto coptico 
latine vertit Schwartz." (Ed. I. H. Petermann, Berhn, 1853.) 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 37 

eyes a false and misguiding brightness. Nevertheless, 
she does not lose courage-; she still hopes and believes. 
Hence she deserves the name of the Believing Wisdom. 
Twelve times she invokes the Deliverer in strains 
of passionate and truly sublime supplication ; these 
are her twelve repentances.* Her deliverance is 
accomplished by means of an equal number of inter- 
ventions on the part of Jesus. As the fall, or sin, 
is nothing more than an obscuration produced by 
matter, so salvation is simply a return to the light. 
This division of the lamentations of Sophia and the 
interventions of Jesus, produces a wearisome amount 
of repetition ; the aspirations of the soul are, however, 
rendered with a force, all the more poetic, because 
so largely derived from the Old Testament. In 
particular, all the penitential Psalms are applied to 
Sophia, being wTested from their natural meaning. 
" O Light of lights," she exclaims, " thou whom I have 
seen from the beginning, listen to the cry of my 
repenting. t Save me, Light, from my own thoughts, 
which are evil. I have fallen into the infernal regions. 
False lights have led me astray, and now I am lost 
in these chaotic depths. I cannot spread my wings 
and return to my place, for the evil powers sent forth 
by my enemy, and most of all this lion-faced power, 
hold me captive. I have cried for help, but my voice 
dies in the night. I have lifted up my eyes to the 
heights, that thou mayest come to my aid, Light. 

* "Nunc cujus TTvevfza alacre, progreditor, ut dicat solutionem 
duodecimce p^iravoiag Trhrecog (jocpiagy (" Pist. Soph,," p. 70.) 

f "Lumen luminum, cui e-nia-evaa inde ab initio, audi igitur nunc, 
lumen, meam i^eTdvoiav." (Ibid., p. 33.) 



38 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

But I have found none but hostile powers, who rejoice 
in my affliction, and seek to increase it, by putting 
out the spark of thine which is in me. Now, O 
Light of truth, in the simplicity of my heart I have 
followed the false brightness which I mistook for 
thine. My sin is wholly before thee. Leave me not 
to suffer longer, for I have cried to thee from the 
beginning. It is for thee that I am plunged into this 
affliction. Behold me in this place weeping, crying 
out again for the light, which I have seen upon 
the heights. Hence the rage of those who keep 
the doors of my prison. If thou wilt come and 
save me, great is thy mercy ; grant my supplica- 
tion. Deliver me from this dark matter^ lest I be, 
as it were, swallowed up in it."* ^' Light, cast upon 
me the flame of thy compassion, for I am in bitter 
anguish. Haste thee, hear me. I have waited for 
my spouse that he might come and fight for me, 
and he comes not. Instead of light, I have received 
darkness and matter. I will praise thee, I will glorify 
thy name ; let my hymn rise with acceptance to 
thee at the gates of light. Let my whole soul be 
purified from matter, and dwell • in the divine city. 
Let all souls which receive the mystery be admitted 
therein. "t The same cry rises twelve times to the 
Deliverer. " I am become," says Sophia again, " like 
the demon who dwells in matter, in whom all light 
is extinct. I am myself become matter. My 
strength is turned to stone in me.j I have set my 

* "Libera me e ?)X^hujus caliginis." ("Pist. Soph.," p. 34.) 
I "-^ifvxai horum qui suscipient mysterium." (Ibid., p. 36.) 
X " Atque mea vis congelascuit in me." (Ibid., p. 43.) 



■ BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 39 

love in thee, O Light, leave me not in the chaos. 
Deliver me by thy knowledge.* My trust is in thee ; 
I will rejoice, I will sing praise to thy glory, because 
thou hast had pity on me. Give me thy baptism, and 
wash away my sins." This mythology, full of poetic 
sadness, was skilfully spread as a veil over the abstrac- 
tions of Gnosticism, and adapted them to the taste 
of subtle and unhealthy minds. The dialogue between 
Jesus and His disciples, in spite of its uniformity, 
pleased the readers of the apocryphal Gospels, and 
satisfied those feverish imaginations which had lost 
the sense of true beauty. Pride found its gratification 
in these new mysteries, which emulated in every 
respect those of Eleusis or of Mithra. 

§ III. The Gnostics of the Second School, 
{a) The Ophites. Marcion. 

The special feature of the second Gnostic school 
is that in its teachings the Demiurgus appears as 
a decidedly maleficent being, instead of simply belong- 
ing to an inferior order, ignoring the Pleroma, as in 
the systems of Basilides and the earlier Valentinians. 
This school is inaugurated by some heretics called 
Ophites, because they made the serpent a beneficent 
being, in order the better to mark their opposition 
to the God of the Old Testament. His foe was, in 
their view, a deliverer. They indulged in all sorts 
of fanciful inventions to explain the origin of the 
world. The first Ophites make their appearance at the 
commencement of the second century, but they had suc- 

'^ " Libera me in tua cognitione." (" Fist. Soph.," p. 56.) 



40 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

cessors in the time of Irenseus, who added fresh absur- 
dities to their system. We simply mention them here. 

The most eminent representative of the second 
school of Gnosticism is Marcion. If it is always 
difficult to separate a system from the person of its 
author, this is especially the case with the doctrine 
of this famous heretic, for it bears so distinctly the 
impress of his ardent but narrow soul, passionately 
attached to Christianity, but unjust (as passion itself 
even when its object is the most noble and elevated) ; 
enamoured of the highest moral ideal, but finding 
means to falsify it by unsound exaggeration. Grave, 
however, as were these errors of Marcion, he never- 
theless commands our respect by the nobleness of his 
character and the grandeur of some of his thoughts, 
which have become causes of discord only because 
he has presented them without the qualifications which 
would have completed them. Marcion possessed the 
genius of a reformer. He was a Saul of Tarsus, ever 
abiding under the burning brightness of the revealing 
flash on the road to Damascus, never attaining to the 
full and calm light of a settled faith. An impetuous 
disciple of St. Paul, he compromises the cause he 
has embraced, by disregarding the grand and suggestive 
synthesis of the Apostolic preaching, and giving promi- 
nence only to its negative and polemical side. He 
believes himself called to renew perpetually the scene 
at Antioch ; he treats the Church like another Cephas, 
whose attachment to Judaism demands a reprimand, 
and, under the name of Judaism, he comprehends 
all which is more or less remotely connected with 
the religion of the Old Testament. This was a 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 4I 

deviation from the broad and profound views of the 
Apostle of the Gentiles, with regard to the relations 
of the two covenants, and in particular of the prepara- 
tory province of the law. Thus did this ultra Paulinist 
fail to fulfil the noble mission devolved upon him, 
for nothing was more opportune in his day than a 
reaction against Judaising tendencies, which were the 
more dangerous, that they were disguised under new 
names. The spirit of reformation is distinguished 
from the spirit of revolution in this — that it destroys 
only the parasitic growths, without touching the vital 
parts of the tree. 

To be just, we must bear in mind the circumstances 
under which Marcion grew up. A native of the shores 
of the Euxine, born in the year 120, he was educated 
amidst a school which borrowed from the apocryphal 
literature of the Jews the warm and vivid tints with 
which it depicted the future of the Church, and was 
thus led into positive materialism. Marcion's tenden- 
cies were altogether in an opposite direction. The 
son of a devout bishop, he was distinguished by an 
exalted piety, verging on asceticism ; one of his first 
steps was to make a gift to the Church of a large 
sum of money.* We cannot admit the serious charge 
made by Tertullian against his moral character ./'t 
was so common to compare heresy to spiritual aduL^^'^J", 
that a bold figure, interpreted by inveterate malignity, 
may easily have grown into a calumny not intended. 
Probably the opposition offered by Marcion to Judaising 
Christianity was fierce and immoderate, as might be 
expected from such a man. In consequence of some 
* Tertullian, " De prcescriptionibus," c. xxx. 



42 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

differences, in which his father seems to have taken 
part against him, Marcion repaired to Rome.* This 
was tlie great theatre upon which every inventor of 
a new thing sought to enact his part, well knowing 
that there was no surer way of gaining publicity for 
his ideas. Marcion had occupied himself very little 
with metaphysics up to this time ; he had no taste 
for all the subtleties of Valentinian Gnosticism. The 
bent of his mind was far more to Christian practice 
than to theosophy. In his keen antipathy to the 
Judaisers, he included the Old Testament itself, without 
embodying his views in any definite system. It was 
necessary, however, that he should give a speculative 
basis to his ideas, for they could not exercise any 
important influence while they remained in a frag- 
mentary form. This necessity explains the subsequent 
reconciliation between Marcion and Gnosticism. At 
Rome he met a moderate Gnostic, who had abandoned 
the learned and poetic ontology of the Valentinians, 
and who shared Marcion's violent antipathy to Judaism. 
This man was named Cerdo, and was a Syrian by 
birth. Discarding the elaborate genealogy of the 
yEons, he was satisfied with recognising a visible 
and inferior God in addition to the supreme and 
invisible Being ; the latter represented goodness, the 
lormer justice. The opposition between the Gospel 
and the Old Testament was thus vindicated. Cerdo 
combined with these views a very decided tendency 
to asceticism. t Marcion's predispositions were all 

'^- TertuUian, " De prsscriptionibus," c. li. 

f "Phil," vii. 37. Comp. Eusebius, "H. E.," IV. 11 ; Irenseus, 
" Contra Hseres.," i. 27. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 43 

in favour of such a system ; he supplemented it, and 
imparted to it the fervour and boldness of his own 
nature. Thus he made it a really powerful doctrine, 
which gathered many adherents. 

He seems to have always dreaded schism. When 
Polycarp came to Rome he sought his friendship, but 
the patriarch of the churches of Asia Minor repelled 
him with the words, " I know thee : thou art the first- 
born of Satan."* Addressing himself one day to the 
elders of the Church of Rome, Marcion asked them 
what Jesus had meant when He spoke of the piece of 
new cloth, which, being put in, rends the old garment. 
Not content with their answer, which was full of 
wisdom, he boldly applied these words to the Old 
Testament, which he likened to the worn-out vesture : 
*' And I also," he exclaimed, "will rend the Church, 
and the rent shall be for ever."t It is difficult to believe, 
with TertuUian, that such a man should have sought, 
at the close of his life, reconciliation with orthodoxy.]: 

Marcion is distinguished from the other Gnostics, 
first, by his strong repudiation of that sort of intellec- 
tual aristocracy, so scornful of the profanum vtdgum, 
which set up between the learned and the ignorant the 
very barrier which the Lord had cast down. Marcion 
did not even sanction the distinction commonly made 
in public worship, between the members of the Church 
and the catechumens, so fully was he taken up with 
the desire to popularise the truth. § He also entirely 

* Eusebius, " H. E.," IV. 14. f Epiphanius, " Contra Hasres.," 42. 

I TertuUian, " De prsescript.," 30. 

§ " Marcion hunc locum (Gah, vi. 6) ita interpretatus est, ut 
putaret fideles et catechumenos simul orare debere." (Jerome, 
" Comment, in ep. ad Gal.") 



44 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

rejected the method of allegorical interpretations, and 
argued for an adherence to the natural meaning of the 
texts, without recourse to a compliant exegesis, which 
avoided all the real difficulties, merging them in an 
arbitrary symbolism. Refusing to adopt the artifices 
by which difficult texts, or those which gave occasion 
for scandal, were disposed of, he preferred to set aside 
that which he could not interpret, and he made a sacred 
book for his own use, which contained, according to 
him, the true tradition of the teaching of Jesus Christ. 
He found this pure tradition only in the writings of 
St. Paul and in the Gospel of Luke, which he 
ascribed to the direct influence of the Apostle of the 
Gentiles. Even this he accepted only with reserva- 
tions, and eliminated from it all that was incompatible 
with his system. Thus Marcion became the father of 
purely internal and subjective criticism. 

There has been much discussion as to whether he 
recognised two or three essential principles of things. 
It is certain that he established an eternal opposition 
between the supreme God and uncreated matter, the 
source of all evil. The moot point is, whether the 
Demiurgus, or the inferior God, who created the world, 
was raised by him to the rank of a third principle. 
It seems that such was really his idea, for the 
opposition between the Demiurgus and the supreme 
God is too radical to admit the supposition that the 
former proceeded from the latter. Again, matter is 
clearly distinguished from the Demiurgus,* since the 

* "Erepoi Se KaQojQ Kai b vavTTjg Mapiciojv, dvo apxdg eicrjyovvTai. 
("Rhodos apud Eusebius," " H. E.," V. 13.) Avo dpxdg rod iravToq 
vTrkOtro. (" Phil," vii. 29.) 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 



45 



first man was condemned for this very offence of 
having violated the law of his Creator under the 
influence of matter. It is better to adhere to the 
co-existence of three distinct principles, with this 
reservation, that the material principle, being essentially 
negative, cannot be compared with the two others ; 
the system, after all, therefore, is essentially dualistic* 
We shall not attempt to introduce rigorous exactness 
into the metaphysics of a school which makes practical 
religion its absorbing theme. Marcion does not en- 
deavour to connect the created world with the higher 
sphere by a long chain of emanations or ^ons. The 
supreme God of his system remains motionless through 
all eternity ; He only emerges from this state of 
quiescence at the time of salvation. The Demiurgus 
creates the world without any suspicion of the existence 
of a power higher than his own; he fashions incoherent 
matter, and forms from it the human body, into which 
he breathes life. He gives man a law, but without 
rendering him capable of fulfilling it. The fall of man 
is laid to the charge of the Demiurgus. t It is not 

* Tertullian enumerates three principles in Marcion's system : 
" Et materia enim deus secundum formam divinitatis, innata 
scilicet et infecta et sterna. Atque ita tres interim mihi deos 
numera Marcionis." ("Adv. Marc," i. 15.) Neander ("Kirch. 
Gesch.," i. 521 ; " Gnostisch. Syst," 287, et seq.), in his admirable 
exposition of Marcion's system, has fallen into the mistake of 
attempting to trace back the Demiurgus to the supreme God, while 
Baur, also aiming at an impossible symmetry, has identified him 
with the material and visible cause. (" Christlische Gnosis," 
276-282.) There is opposition, however, between the Demiurgus 
and Nature, as is proved by the fall of man. This opposition 
is clearly shown from the fragment of the Armenian book of Esnik, 
quoted by Moeller (" Gesch. der Kosmologis," p. 378, et sej.), in 
which matter struggles with the Demiurgus for the possession 
of man. f Tertulhan, "Adv. Marc," ii. 5. 



46 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

simply the visible God, as opposed to the invisible ; 
he represents further, strict, implacable justice, which 
deals with the external alone, recognises only a mer- 
cenary and imperfect virtue, and takes vengeance for 
evil rather than punishes it.* The Demiurgus is the 
evil tree of the parable, which is known by its fruit. t 
The Old Testament is the monument of this maleficent 
activity, the Jewish people is the people of the 
Demiurgus, the law is the emanation of his cruel 
justice, and the miserable destinies of Israel reveal 
the impotence of a God who could not even secure 
the happy fortunes of his favourites. t Paganism 
belongs to matter and to the demons, as Judaism 
to the Demiurgus. Such is the state of the world 
up to the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius. 

Suddenly, without transition or preparation, like 
the lightning clearing the cloud, the supreme God 
appears in the person of Jesus Christ. § This supreme, 
invisible, unknown God is sovereign goodness, love, 
as opposed to justice. He is never angry ; He can only 
pity and pardon. Thus He grants salvation not to 
a legal righteousness, but to the trusting faith which 
surrenders to Him.^ Here is the echo of one of the 
grandest utterances of Paul. Unhappily, it is wrested 
from its true meaning, for love, apart from righteousness, 
is but blind' kindness, weak indulgence. The merciful, 
apart from the holy God, is no longer the Most High. 

■'' "Quo ore constitues divinitatem duorum Deorum, separationem 
seorsum deputans Deum bonum et seorsum Deum justum." (Ter- 
tullian, "Adv. Marc," ii. 12.) 

f " Phil., Epitome/' x. 19. | "Contra Marc," ii. 18-29. 

§ "Subito Christus." (Ibid, iy. 11, 17.) 

IT Ibid., iv. 20-24 ; Irenseus, i. 27. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 47 

Marcion attempted to intensify the contrast between 
the Demiurgus and the supreme God, by drawing 
up a long list of antitheses between the Old and 
New Testaments. While the Messiah of the Demi- 
urgus is a national and local Messiah, Jesus belongs 
to all mankind. The former promises only earthly 
good; the latter speaks altogether of heaven. The 
Demiurgus commands the children of Israel to carry 
away the treasures of Egypt ; Jesus directs His 
disciples not to take so much as a staff in their hand. 
The Jewish God sends a bear to devour the children 
who had mocked Elisha, and calls down fire from 
heaven upon his enemies ; the Gospel teaches only 
kindness and forgiveness. Lastly, the merciful Saviour 
chose as His disciples the outcasts from Judaism. 
These antitheses he sums up in these eloquent words : 
" While Moses lifts up his hands to heaven, invoking 
the slaughter of the enemies of Israel, Jesus stretches 
out His hands upon the cross for the salvation of 
all mankind." On the one side, is the spirit of 
revenge ; on the other, is the triumph of love.* 
Jesus is the direct manifestation of the good and in- 
visible God. In the fifteenth year of Tiberius it pleased 
God to come down to Nazareth, a city of Galilee. 
It was not possible for Him to come into contact with 
matter; Marcion, therefore, holds the most positive 
docetism. The birth of Jesus was only apparent. His 
body only a phantom. He took nothing from the 
world of the Demiurgus, t unless it were the name 

- TertuUian, "Adv. Marc," ii. 25, 29. 

f " Phantasma vindicans Christum, non erat quod videbatur, caro 
nee caro, homo nee homo." (TertuUian, " Contra Heeres.," 3, 8.) 
'AyevvriTOQ "0 'Irjaovg. (" Phil.," vii. 34.) 



48 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

of Messiah, for the God of the Old Testament 
proclaimed the coming of a Jewish Saviour, and His 
prophets, one after another, predicted it. This inferior 
Saviour will indeed come, but only for the chosen 
people ; to them He w^ill bring a salvation worthy 
of them — one, namely, that is purely material and 
earthly.- Meanwhile, the Demiurgus stirs up the 
hatred of the Jews against this rival power which 
has arisen in Jerusalem. Jesus is sacrificed under 
his influence. The death of the Redeemer may indeed 
have been only apparent, like the rest of His mani- 
festations on earth ; it yet points out to us the way to 
be made free by the breaking of material bonds. The 
Christ of Marcion does not rise again, but He goes 
down into Hades, not to seek the saints of the Old 
Testament, who are destined to the material joys of 
the paradise of the Demiurgus, but the unhappy Pagans, 
the sons of matter, v/ho can be saved only by Him.t 

According to the Armenian Esnik, an encounter 
takes place between Christ and the Demiurgus, on 
the confines of the higher world. The Crucified shuts 
the mouth of His adversary by confounding him from 
his own law, which forbids the shedding of innocent 
blood. He wrests from him the avowal of his 
inferiority, and delivers those of his subordinates, 
who have placed their trust in him, leaving the 
obstinate Jews to the harsh treatment of the Demi- 
urgus. Jesus returns into heaven ; thither He draws 
after Him, by the stern path of asceticism, all who 
beheve in His word ; their soul is to break through 

* Tertullian, "Adv. Marc./' iii. 21. 
f IreniEus, "Adv. Haeres./' i. 27. 



BOOK I. — GNOSTICISM. 49 

its material shroud, as the bird breaks the Qgg, or the 
ripe ear the straw which encloses it.* They are to 
prepare for the glories of the invisible by renouncing 
all material pleasures, and breaking all carnal bonds. 
Marcion imposed on his disciples absolute chastity ; 
he condemned marriage, and required his catechumens 
to forsake family ties, and to renounce all earthly pos- 
sessions. So far from fearing reproach and martyrdom, 
he exulted in both as the sure means of purification. 
" We are devoted," he says, *' to hatred and to grief." 
It is easy to understand the influence exercised by 
such a system, for he was full of spiritual energy, 
of ardent love for Christ, and of a profound convic- 
tion of the unquestionable superiority of Christianity 
over all that had preceded it. His errors, the part he 
assigned to legendary metaphysics, and to oriental 
asceticism, gained him many sympathies in an age, the 
most decided tendencies of which found their satis- 
faction in him. Thus, in spite of sharp opposition, in 
spite of the passionate invectives of Tertullian, Mar- 
cionism gathered numerous adherents, and constituted 
a true schismatic church. His influence was felt 
even in the time of Theodoret, as we learn from his 
account of the savage old man he met, who washed 
his face with his own saliva, that he might not borrow 
even a drop of water from the accursed world of the 
Demiurgus.t 

Among the Marcionites we may mention Preps, who 
insisted upon the existence of the third principle, and 
Apelles, who had an enthusiastic disciple in a woman 

* Baur, " Christliche Gnosis," p. 273. 

f Theodoret, " De hseretic. fabulis.," i. 24. 

5 



50 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

named Philomela ; he admitted four principles, making 
a sort of distinct personification of evil. He was as 
severe as Marcion upon the Old Testament ; his 
docetism, however, appears to have been less pro- 
nounced ; for, in his view, Christ, in reascending to 
heaven, gave back the various particles of His flesh 
to the elements to which they severally belonged. 
Having made a long sojourn in Alexandria, he blended 
with the system of Marcion many elements of the 
doctrine of Valentinus. The fable of Sophia reappears 
in his notion of the Demiurgus, who sighs after the 
higher world, of which he has had a glimpse. A 
system which loses its definite outlines is bending 
to its fall. The school of Marcion was soon to be 
dissolved in the ever-heated crucible of fanatic 
speculation. 



CHAPTER 11, 



MANICH^ISM. 



Gnosticism, combated during nearly two centuries 
by the highest Christian genius of the East and West, 
was so much the more surely vanquished because 
it encountered a purely moral resistance, which did not 
dishonour itself by any appeal to force. Nevertheless, 
it reappeared in Persia, at the close of the third 
century, under a new form, which betrays the lassitude 
of the speculative spirit. The logical power displayed 
is much less than in the systems of Basilides and 
Valentinus, and the veil .of legend, used to cloak the 
metaphysical construction under brilliant images, and 
to give it life and colour, has lost all originality. 
Manichaeism is a translation into Christian language 
of the ideas which lie at the basis of the religion 
of Zoroaster, in combination with elements derived 
from the early heretics. As it touches the soil of 
Persia, however. Gnosticism springs into new life; 
if its creations are less bold, they are also less com- 
plicated, and more popular. Thus this impoverished 
version restored to it a measure of its forfeited credit, 
though it never made the same mark as the earlier 
forms of Gnosticism upon the thought of the Church ; 
it neither became identified with it, nor stimulated 
it by the necessity of a vigorous resistance. 

Manichseism arose in the midst of the religion which 

5* 



52 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

had been the clearest exponent of duahsm, which 
had raised that principle to the very border of the 
spiritual world, but no higher, for it had never left 
behind the somewhat idealised opposition between 
darkness and light. We have seen that Christianity 
had early gathered many adherents in Persia. It 
had even exerted a deep influence upon the devotees 
of Zoroaster, who had borrowed from it the weapons 
with which they opposed it. The new sacred books 
composed at this period in Iran, bear the plain impress 
of Christian thought ; the idea of redemption, though 
strangely distorted, occupies an important place. The 
development given by the Bundehesch to the myths, 
which concern the heroic conqueror of evil, — who bears 
the name sometimes of Sosiosch, sometimes of Mithra, — 
can be explained only by the indirect influence of 
the new religion. The famous mysteries of Mithra 
derived from the Gospel their fundamental idea of 
the renewal of the nature by means of death. The 
rites celebrated by their votaries were imitated from 
Baptism and the Lord's Supper. When we find 
a religion so ancient and so glorious as that of 
Zoroaster, thus seeking a compromise with a faith 
so long ignored and despised, we have a sure proof 
that Christianity must have grown up in juxtaposition 
with it with amazing rapidity, and must have made 
itself formidable as a rival. Manich^ism is the counter- 
part, as it were, of these attempts at fusion ; the new 
religion, ill-understood, and already corrupted in its 
essence, seeks alliance with the religion of the past, 
and endeavours to rejuvenate it by baptising it in 
its own name. It leaves its doctrines untouched, 



\ 



BOOK I. — MANICH^ISM. 53 

and endeavours only to modify their expression. Mani 
is still a Magian, while he calls himself a Christian ; 
herein lay the peril and also the inanity of the attempt.* 
We have two series of documents relating to Mani, 
the one accredited in the East, the other derived 
from the historians of Persia. The former consist 
merely of an account of a supposed public discussion 
at Cascar, in Mesopotamia, between the heresiarch 
and a bishop named Archelaus. Not only do they 
abound in details as to the doctrine of Mani, but 
they also retrace his history. They suppose him to 
have had two immediate forerunners. The true founder 
of the sect is said to have been Scythianus, a rich 
Arab, well versed in all the sciences of Egypt, which 
he had made the country of his adoption. He has 
a disciple, named Terebinthus, who establishes himself 

'^ The sources from which we have derived this exposition of 
Manichaeism are, beside the modern historians of the Church : 
1st. "The Dispute of Archelaus," contained in the fifth volume 
of Routh's " Reliquise," of the historical value of which we shall 
presently state our views. 2nd. The polemical writing of Titus 
of Botsra (" Contra Manich^os," Book IV., ajDud Henrici Canisii 
lection, antiq.. Edit. Basnages, Vol. I.) 3rd. The fragments of 
Letters of Manes, collected by Fabricius (" Bibliotheca gr^eca," 
Vol. VIII. p. 315) ; those collected by Augustine, especially in the 
" Opus imperfectum." 4th. A precious fragment of Agapius, a 
disciple of Manes, in Photius, " Bibhotheca," cod. 179. 5th. Alex- 
ander of Lycopolis, an Alexandrine philosopher, who lived between 
the fourth and fifth centuries, and who has given an exact exposition 
of Manichaeism, at least in all that relates to the metaphysical 
part of the system. This valuable fragment is found in Combefil's 
collection, entitled, "Auctarium nov. Biblioth. Patrum," Part II. 
We may quote also Epiphanius, " H seres.," 66, which is only 
a compilation of "The Dispute of Archelaus;" Theodoret, "De 
hseretic. fabulis.," i. 25. See, finally, " L'Histoire critique du 
Manicheisme," by Beausobre (Vols. I. and II.), a vast repertory of 
exhaustive information. 



54 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

in Persia, and edits, in four books, the doctrine of his 
master. Mani, adopted by the widow of Terebinthus, 
gives a powerful impetus to the new heresy, enriching 
it by numerous additions from the sacred books of 
the Christians. He obtains great credit with the 
King, Sapores, but is ignominiously driven from the 
court, after having vainly attempted the miraculous 
cure of the King's son. He travels over the far East, 
but finally returns to Persia ; he holds sharp contro- 
versies with the bishop Archelaus, in the public 
assemblies. Shamefully defeated, he escapes with 
difficulty the popular fury, and soon falls under the 
stroke of the prince whom he had deceived. 

This legend, unsupported by any contemporary 
writer, has no other interest than that of showing 
clearly the eclectic character of the heresy of Mani, 
who aimed at nothing higher than a fusion of ideas, 
derived from all schools. The " Dispute" itself sup- 
plies more than one valuable and reliable light upon 
his doctrine.* The oriental version of the origin of 
Manichaeism has in its favour the surest testimonies 
borrowed from the national history of Persia, and it 
commends itself by a great semblance of probability. 
It is from this source we derive the biography of the 
founder of Manichseism.f 

■''- The " Dispute of Archelaus" can only be regarded as an 
unauthentic anti-Manichean compilation. Neither Eusebius nor 
Ephreus, who lived in Mesopotamia, make any mention of it. It 
is, moreover, full of inaccuracies. No such river is known as the 
Stranga, nor any such castle as Arabion, both of which appear in 
this narrative. The town of Cascar, which it places in the Roman 
Empire, belonged to the Persians. (See Beausobre, I., 133-139.) 
The " Dispute of Archelaus" is, nevertheless, of great value in a 
doctrinal aspect. 

t The oriental version of the history of Manes is found in the 



BOOK I. — MANICHiEISM. 55 

The dynasty of the Sassanidae had just inaugurated 
in Persia an era of restoration, which had reinstated 
the national worship in an honourable position. The 
Persian historians speak of a sort of solemn council, 
held by the Magi, under King Artaxerxes, to fix the 
canon of doctrine. There was naturally much per- 
turbation of mind in a period of universal renovation, 
in which the blending of peoples and races no longer 
made it possible for belief to be restricted within the 
narrow limits of a particular country. Christianity 
had gathered enough adherents to excite universal 
opposition, and to teach the world that the time of 
purely national creeds was irrevocably past. Thus 
the religion of Zoroaster, in commencing its new 
career, was constrained to have regard to this 
character of universality ; but to this end, it must 
needs enlarge its historical basis, and enter into com- 
bination more or less close with the Gospel. This 
was the attempt, made in the year 240, by a young 
Persian named Mani, who seems to have united 
speculative genius with a brilliant imagination. It 
has been asserted that he belonged to one of those 
priestly families, which preserved the pure tradition 
of the Avesta, as the true sacred fire. It is very 
possible that he may himself have been one of the 
Magi, although we have no positive information on this 
point. His learning was vast ; he surpassed all his 
countrymen. A mathematician, astronomer, musician, 
and painter, he was a man born to exert a great in- 
fluence upon his contemporaries. It is doubtful if he 

Persian historian Mirkhoud. (De Sacy, " Memoires sur-diverses 
antiquites de la Perse." Paris, 1793, p. 289, et seg.) 



56 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

ever really connected himself with the Church, though 
it has been asserted that he for some time exercised 
the priestly office. 

He never recognised the authority of Holy Scripture ; 
he treated this like his own religion, retaining only that 
which was convenient. In reality, all he borrowed 
from Christianity was the name of Christ, and the 
words sin and redemption, which he translated in his 
own manner, although he preserved the notion of a 
new and final revelation, destined for the whole human 
race. In the time and country in which he lived, no 
system could succeed without the aid of the marvellous. 
Had he not the example of Zoroaster himself, who had 
spoken only of visions and ecstasies ? A Magian, his 
contemporary, in repute for his holiness, was held to 
have been carried up into heaven during many days ; 
there he had beheld, with his own eyes, the mysteries 
of the unknown world, and had been enabled, by the 
accounts he brought, to dispel the doubts of his sove- 
reign as to the future life. Mani aspired to play a similar 
part ; he sought to become another Daniel at the Court 
of Persia ; to obtain the royal favour seemed to him 
the best means for securing the triumph of his doctrine. 
Thus he soon began to relate his visions and to play 
the prophet. He set himself forth as pre-eminently 
the Apostle of Jesus Christ, the true interpreter of His 
teachings, directly inspired by Heaven. He assumed 
the name and the office of the Paraclete,* a convenient 

* He declared himself to be the Paraclete promised by Jesus. 
He pretended to have received the gift of prophecy ; he wrote a 
book which he said had come down from Heaven. (" Mirkhoud 
apud Sacy," p. 294.) In the " Dispute of Archelaus," Manes thus 
speaks of himself : " Sum quidem ego Paracletus qui ab Jesu mitti 



i 



BOOK I. — MANICH^ISM. 57 

artifice for misrepresenting primitive Christianity, by 
applying to himself the promises of the Master with 
reference to the revelations of the Holy Spirit, by which 
His teachings were to be made plain. With, hovv^ever, 
much prudence, he sought to preserve the ideas of 
Zoroaster under Christian names ; he yet laid too bold 
a hand upon the ancient worship^ of his country, not to 
provoke lively opposition. The King, whose favour he 
had at first won, withdrew it so soon as he saw Mani 
had formed a sect properly so-called, and that he had 
sent forth disciples to preach the new doctrine, without 
confining themselves to the national practices. This 
kind of innovation is in truth more dangerous than any 
doctrinal novelties ; it needs more courage to attack 
the customs of a people than its theories, custom being 
the sensible form, the vesture of the idea which 
strikes all ages. His death was determined. He 
retired beyond the eastern frontier of Persia, and went 
even as far as India ; he could not but feel himself 
drawn towards that land of boundless asceticism and 
sublime pantheism. Using every means to obtain 
popularity, he employed his talent as a painter, to cover 
with brilliant images the temples of the cities through 
which he passed. Strange apostleship, which, to secure 

prsedictus sum." (Routh, V. 73.) According to Augustine, he 
represented himself as the Apostle of Jesus Christ, that is, the 
Apostle by pre-eminence, who had received the fulness of the Holy 
Spirit. Augustine, " Contra Faustum," lib. xiii. c. iv., which is 
quite in harmony with his claim to personify the Paraclete. This 
may be judged from these words in the " Dispute of Archelaus " : 
" Sicut et qui ante me missus est Paulus ex parte scire et ex parte 
prophetare se dixit, mihi reservans quod perfectum est." (" Disput.," 
Routh, V. 74.) Manes sends out twelve disciples, as did Jesus 
Christ. (Augustine, " Liber de H^res.," c. 46.) 



58 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

its reception, commenced by patronising the supersti- 
tions encountered on its way ! At length Mani decided 
to strike his great blow. He retired into a cave, which, 
according to the testimony of his enemies, was only a 
mere grotto, opening out on to a fertile plain, where he 
found all that was needful for his sustenance. There 
he pretended to have been honoured with the most 
ecstatic visions, and to have been caught up into 
heaven. In this retreat he composed a book which he 
calls his Gospel, and which he adorns with magnificent 
symbolical paintings. He brings it back to Persia, as 
the work of God Himself. Surrounded with the halo of 
the marvellous, he is received as a new Zoroaster; his 
disciples rapidly multiply, and he finds great favour 
with the new King, Hormuz, the son of Sapores, who 
embraces his doctrine with enthusiasm. He even ap- 
pears to have provided Mani with a place of refuge, a 
sort of citadel, where he might hide from the hatred of 
the Magi, and the opposition of the Christians, for he 
offended equally the adherents of both the old and the 
new religion by endeavouring to fuse them in a hybrid 
alliance which corrupted both. Unhappily for Mani, 
Hormuz only reigned two years, and Behram, his 
successor, was the sworn foe of Manichseism. After 
tolerating the sect, for prudential reasons, at the com- 
mencement of his reign, he soon displayed his true 
feeling by compelling Mani to accept the challenge of 
one of those public discussions, the issue of which is 
certain when a King presides. In the end he caused 
the death of the heretic, but he could not thus extin- 
guish the heresy, which was too much in accordance 
with the tendencies of the period, to die with its 



BOOK I. — MANICH^ISM. 59 

apostle, and which indeed gained from persecution a 
moral dignity lacking to it before. The torture of 
Mani displays extraordinary barbarity ; he was flayed 
alive ; his disciples, nevertheless, remained faithful to 
him, and, scattered far and wide by the persecution, 
they went everywhere carrying his doctrine, and thus 
gained for it an importance far outweighing its in- 
trinsic worth. The Christians, alarmed at his influ- 
ence, said of Mani, that he had opened his mouth like 
a sepulchre.* 

The Manichasan system, which we gather from the 
writings of the immediate disciples as well as in the 
fragments of the master's book, makes no attempt to 
cloak the absolute dualism which is its fundamental 
principle. t Mani finds himself under no necessity to 
observe the ascending scale of fine gradations so skil- 
fully devised by the Gnostic emanatists, and to assign 
to matter a metaphysical origin. From the commence- 
ment, he places the world of mind and the world of 
matter in direct opposition to each other, and allows 
them no point of contact. Titus of Botsra says : 
" Mani, in his anxiety to show that God was in no way 
the cause of evil, places uncreated evil in opposition to 
the uncreate divine essence." | "I recognise," said 
Mani, " two natures, the one good, the other evil ; that 
which is good is found only in some parts of the world, 
that which is evil comprehends the whole world. § 
This evil principle, which is at war with God from all 

* 'O ^£ (1)Q TCKpov aviojjjxkvov f'xwv TO aTo^JLa. (Routh, V. 99.) 

t " Homo astutus coepit in nostris libris occasiones inquirere 

dualitatis suae." (Ibid., 193.) 

X KaKiav dvTS(TTr}(r{v dvri^ dy&vrjTov dy^pfxrcp. (Tit. Botsra, " Contra 

Manichieos," Bk. I. p. 60.) § "Archel. Disput.," Routh, v. 76. 



6o THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

eternity, is called sometimes Nature, sometimes Matter, 
sometimes the Prince of this World, sometimes Satan."* 
The element of disorder, which is in all things, is what 
Mani calls Matter.t Thus he confined himself to 
stating, broadly and simply, the opposition of Ormuz 
to Ahrimum — of the kingdom of light to the kingdom 
of darkness. Light is not in his theory the brilliant 
symbol of the good and the true ; however ethereal and 
impalpable it is, it still belongs to the inferior world, 
and it is vain for him to compare it to the spiritual 
element. Nevertheless he constantly contrasts the 
kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, as mat- 
ter with spirit. This kingdom of light is governed by a 
first principle, who calls himself the Goo^— the God par 
excellence, but whose personality is less distinct than 
that of Ormuz, and loses itself, or is merged in the 
eternal light, which is essentially diffused ; he is identi- 
fied with every luminous substance. Matter, personi- 
fied in the same way, in the wicked one or the devil, 
is normally in a state of confusion, of incoherence, of 
truly chaotic disorder. It follows its impetuous im- 
pulses like the sea, the waves of which are uplifted with 
every stormy wind; its unrestrained forces are in per- 
petual warfare with each other. In one of its wild and 
lawless leaps, it catches a glimpse of the region of 
light, and is strangely enamoured of it. '* There was a 
time," says Titus of Botsra, " when matter moved in 
chaos. It conceived and brought forth many powers 
without having itself any intuition of good. But in its 
struggles, it discerned the light of good, and strove to 

* " Phot. Codex," 179. 

f "AraKTov Kivrjaiv. (Alex. Lycop., Combefirs " Auctar.," p. 4.) 



BOOK I. — MANICH^ISM. 6l 

rise to that region in which it had no right.* The 
darkness, crossing its own limits, entered into contest 
with the light. "t The system is strangely inconsistent 
throughout ; for if matter is in reality the opposite of 
light, how should it feel for that which is its radical 
opposite, an attraction which would imply a certain 
affinity ? 

The luminous principle, in the calm region where it 
reigns, dreads this invasion of incoherent matter. In 
order to repel it, it produces by emanation, a protective 
power, destined to raise a boundary between the two 
empires! This protective power is called the Mother 
of Life, and is nothing else than the creative force. In 
its turn it gives birth to primeval man ;§ it arms him 
with the five elements, which are water, light, air, fire, 
and earth, that he may wage war with chaotic matter. 
In this gigantic struggle he loses something of his 
luminous nature. || The princes of matter devour a 
portion of his armour, which is the soul. Thus, when 
he is released from the tumults of conflict, by being 
introduced into the higher region of the good God, he 
leaves behind him particles of light which blend with 
matter. But that which appears a defeat is in reality 
a triumph, for it is just by this combination that the 
principle of good succeeds in tempering and subduing 
the chaotic forces of matter. Matter was bound, like a 

* 'ETTitrivai ToXg fii) idiotg hinxiipii. (Tit. Botsra, i. 65.) 
f "Disput. Archel.," Routh, v. 19. 

J Avvafjiiv d7ro(Tre\X« TLvd (pvXd^ovaav tovq opovg. (Tit. Botsra, i. 
p. 68.) 

§ Aeyofikvrjv Mrjrkpa rrjg ^ojrjg kui avri^v Trpott^XrjKf.vaL tov irpCJTOV 
dvQpuiTTov. (" Disput.," Routh, v. 30.) Alexander of Lycopolis likened 
the spiritual power which conquers matter to the soul. (Combefil's 
" Auctarium," p. 41.) || " Disput. Archel./' Routh, v. 49. 



62 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

wild beast, by the spiritual element it had absorbed, 
and the result was the production of a compound nature, 
which prevents the letting loose of the material 
powers.* The divine hero, however, does not consent 
to suffer the substance which has emanated from him, 
and which is part of himself, to perish. He seeks to 
disengage it by degrees, and to reabsorb it in himself.t 
For this purpose he produces a new ^on, which is the 
Holy Spirit, the organising power of creation, whose 
work is to set free the elements of light, buried, as it 
were, in matter. The Manichseans represented this 
entire work of defence and deliverance, by a familiar 
and expressive comparison. When the hunters will 
take a fierce lion, they put a kid of the flock in a 
ditch ; its cries attract the savage beast, who falls into 
the snare, while the kid is released by the shepherd.]: 
The devouring lion is raging matter ; the ram which 
allures it and reduces it to impotence, is the luminous 
element from the higher region ; it is a treacherous 
bait for the great adversary, according to the expres- 
sion of Theodoret.§ But it is itself to be finally 
saved, and this is the object of creation and of history. 
We here discern again the fundamental idea of all 
the Gnostic systems, according to which creation is 
confounded with redemption. In Manichseism, how- 
ever, the redemption is of God Himself, rather than 
of an inferior being. This luminous substance, which 
the good God will defend from the invasion of matter, 

* 'EdW?] axTTTSp Orjpiov .... ysyove Toifivv fii^ig icai KpaciQ. (Tit. Botsra, 

Bk. I. p. 68.) 

t l^oTe lu)V TTvevna tKriae top icoarjov. (" Disput," Routh, v. 51.) 
I Ibid., V. 99. § Theodoret, " De hseretic. fabulis.," i. 25. 



BOOK I. — MANICH.EISM. 63 

is confounded with His own nature. "The good prin- 
ciple," said the Manichaeans, " created the world, not 
because he desired to create it, but in order to resist 
evil."* The world, the Cosmos, is only matter disci- 
plined for the defence of the divine essence, for it is 
only organised by the transfusion of the luminous into 
the material element ; order results from the union, 
and this combination is the one grand means of quiet- 
ing the inferior region, which, left to itself, would be a 
prey to incessant and stormy dissensions. The boun- 
dary which divides the luminous from the higher sphere, 
is not a particular ^on, which repels, like a rock, the 
attempt of the powers beneath : it is rather, as in the 
philosophy of Aristotle, an internal force, a controlling 
energy, resulting from the skilful combination of con- 
trary elements. 

The mother of life and the original man, enact in 
Manichaeism the part of Sophia in the system of 
Valentinus, but with less grandeur and poetry. No 
trace remains of the generous and ardent aspiration 
of the inferior ^Eon, who sighs after complete union 
wdth the mysterious principle of her being. We have 
the mere vulgar necessity of personal defence as the 
first principle, and an inexplicable defeat of the ^on, 
who is its champion. This champion is removed from 
the dark and stormy scene of the conflict, as is the 
Sophia of the Valentinians. The portion of his sub- 
stance, which he leaves behind him, recalls Achamoth, 
that sorrowful offspring of the pangs of Wisdom. 
With Valentinus, at least, the redemption of Achamoth 
is, on the part of the first principle, a work of love, since 

- Tit. Botsra, Bk. I. p. 69. 



64 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

that unhappy being is distinct from himself, and is 
born of the rebellion of Sophia. In Manichseism the 
good God only redeems Himself, for the luminous 
substance, v>^hich is diffused in the universe, is His 
own substance ; He seeks His own in all beings, 
and nothing else. Thus the system never rises 
to the conception of love. It is dark and cold as 
pantheism. 

Let us now follow this work of creation and of 
redemption through its successive phases. The Holy 
Spirit, being the organising power which governs the 
beneficent and tranquillising union of light and dark- 
ness, and subjects it to fixed laws, begins by forming 
the firmament in which the higher powers of nature are 
joined to the luminous element.* The sun and moon 
are in the highest part of the firmament, and belong 
to the upper region, or at least these stars are the 
first intermediaries between it and our world. The 
luminous element is found at every step of the scale 
of beings ; it is even present in the plant. It suffers 
acutely in being thus made subject to material bonds. 
This represents, according to a bold and poetic image 
of the Manichseans, the universal crucifixion of the 
Eternal Christ, whom they identify with the divine 
and luminous principle. " What," says St. Augustine, 
" is that cross of light of which the Manichseans 
speak ? The members of God, say they, are scattered 
throughout the whole world, engaged in the universal 
conflict. They are in the stars, in herbs, in fruits. 
To tear up the soil by the ploughshare is to wound 
the members of God ; so also is it to pull up a vege- 
* "Disput," Routh., V, 51. 



BOOK I. — MANICH.EISM. 65 

table or gather a fruit. Jesus Christ is thus crucified 
in the whole world. "^ The development of life in 
the world, rising from kingdom to kingdom, is a 
progressive enfranchisement of the divine element. 
Thus, only to speak of the vegetable kingdom; it takes 
up a portion of the soil with its roots, then transforms 
itself into leaf and flower, and diffuses itself in the 
air, returning to its source in the sphere of light. 
Animal life appears, in a sense, inferior to vegetable, 
because it is subject to the law of reproduction ; thus 
Mani made it to proceed directly from the powers of 
darkness. The ardent rays of the sun hasten the 
liberation of the divine element from the bosom of 
earth. The aim of the good principle is to deliver the 
soul from the fetters of evil, and to lead it to exhale 
itself in some way from the heart of matter.t The 
Manichgeans had a new version of the fable of the giant 
Atlas ; they pretended that a powerful giant, the son 
of matter, carried the world upon his shoulders, and 
that earthquakes were caused by his movements.]; 
They had a strange explanation of the creation of 
man. According to them, the maleficent powers of 
matter were greatly alarmed at seeing to what an 
extent natural life, in its constant evolution, was 
losing. all the divine germs contained in it. Anxious 
to retain these germs, that they might not fall back 
into a state of chaos, they produced beings who bore 
the impress of their spiritual nature. Satan, who is 

'■' " Et ipse est Christus crucifixus in toto mundo." (Augustine, 
" Enarratio in Psalm cxl." § 12. Edit. Migne, iv. p. 1823.) 

■j- Tavrrjv avrXijcrai rpoitov riva Ik riiQ vXrjg. (Tit. Botsra, Lib. i. 
p. 69.) 



66 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the king of these ephemeral creations, then destroyed 
them in order to gather together in one all these 
luminous particles. This being, who thus concen- 
trates the life of the world, and who is at once soul 
and body, is man.* His soul is the concentration of 
the luminous elements scattered abroad in the universal 
life. His body is the material element, but is subdued 
and kept in subjection by the union with the spiritual. 
According to another Manichsean tradition, the powers 
of matter, after, having seen in vision the primeval 
man, who was translated into the region of light, 
attempted to create a being in his likeness, and thus 
produced Adam, the father of our race.t But it is 
found in the end that the demons have miscalculated, 
and that in concentrating the divine life in a being 
who is the image of the world — a complete micro- 
cosm — they have accelerated that sort of evapora- 
tion of the light, after which there will r&main only 
the dead body of the universe, or chaotic matter. 

The divine work will consist in withdrawing man 
from the power of his creator, who is no other than 
the demon. The influence of the Gnostic sect of the 
Ophites is plainly recognisable in this part of the 
system. The fall in Eden is the starting-point of the 
restoration, since it breaks the yoke of the powers of 
darkness, personified in the God of creation. By 
violating their command, and gathering the fruit of 
knowledge, man lays the foundation of his liberty. 

* " Disput.," Routh, V. 65, 66, 

t Tou i-dv <pu>rbs elvm jispog ttjv kv avdptoTroiQ ^vx^JP, tov St gkotovq to 
(xiLixa. (Ibid., V. 49.) 'OpiZ^rai koi xl^vxvv d-rraaav elvai fiepidog 
TOV dyaOov awfxa Kai aapKa TrJQ v\r}. (Tit. Botsra, Lib. i. 69. 
Comp. St. Augustine, "Contra Julian.,'" iii. 185, edit. Migne, x. 1325.) 



BOOK I. — MANICHiEISM. 67 

The tree of knowledge of good and evil is called 
Jesus.* Is it not in truth the emblem of salvation, 
since it gives the knowledge which saves the soul ?t 
Unhappily Eve, under the influence of the demons, 
leads Adam astray, and wins him over to a life of 
sensual indulgence. This surrender to the senses is his 
true fall. The Manichseans assumed towards the Old 
Testament the attitude of extreme Gnosticism. They 
used violent animadversions against the God of Israel 
and His law, which they declared to be implacable ; 
they saw in His prophets, organs of the spirit of dark- 
ness. The '* Dispute of Archelaus" shows that this 
was one of the fundamental points of their system. J 
According to Photius, Agapius, the faithful disciple of 
Mani, openly m.ocked at Moses and the prophets, and 
ascribed to the power of evil all that was said or done 
under the first covenant. The Manichseans explained 
the death of man by a strange fable, which was a new 
distortion of the myth of Sophia. They asserted that 
the powers of darkness, which dwelt in the firma- 
ment, once saw the image of the higher life appearing 
upon the features of a virgin of celestial beauty. 
They were at once filled with ardent love for her, and 
in their painful and impotent efforts to reach her, their 
sweat and tears fell to the ground, and engendered 
plagues and mortal sicknesses. Death thus originated 
in a fervent aspiration baffled. § We can attach no 
importance to this incoherent legend. It is , certain 

* To Si iv Tcapalelaii) (pvrbv, avro tan 6 'Irjaovg. ("Disput.," Routh, 
V. 62.) t Ibid., 66. 

X T>)v da TraXaiciv ypa^))v KcofxojSel. (Photius, " Codex," 179. Comp. 
Tit. Botsra, iii. p. 36. § " Disput," Routh, v. 56, 57. 

6 * 



68 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

that in the view of the Manichaeans, death is to man 
the liberation of the spiritual part, which is carried 
away by the moon, as by a heavenly vessel, up to the 
regions of eternal and unclouded light. The waxing 
of the moon corresponds with the moment when it 
opens to receive emancipated souls ; its waning marks 
the time when it has deposited its sacred burden safe 
in the heavenly haven.* Without recognising moral 
freedom, Mani requires man to do battle with the 
material element which lives in him, and to strengthen 
his spiritual nature. He admits, like other Gnostics, 
a certain predetermination of nature, which establishes 
the hierarchy of souls. This is apparent from the 
terms in which he addresses himself to a female dis- 
ciple, in whom he recognises the offspring of a divine 
race.t Salvation, in this system, can only consist in 
deliverance from the bonds of matter : it is accom- 
plished at the death of every man, by the extinction 
of all corporeal life. We are to prepare ourselves for 
it, by a knowledge of the true principles and by 
asceticism. Mani has expressed very clearly this 
purely intellectual conception of salvation, in a frag- 
ment of a letter which St. Augustine has preserved. 
" Thou hast been inundated with light," he writes to 
an adept of his sect, *' by learning to know what 
thou wast originally, from what class of beings thou 
dost emanate, by understanding that which mingles 
itself with all bodies, with all substances, and diffuses 

* nXoTa yap ijrot iropOfJiCia dvai \tyu tovq Svo (paxTTrjpag. (" Disput.," 

Routh, V. 54.) 

f " Quia es divinas stirpis fructus." (St, Augustine, " Opus 
imperfect.," iii. 172. Edit. Migne, x. 13 18.) 



BOOK I. — MANICH^ISM. 69 

itself through all species. Just as souls are born of 
other souls, so does the bodily element proceed from 
the body. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, 
and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Spirit 
is the soul which proceeds from the soul, as the flesh 
from the flesh."* 

When redemption is once confounded with the mere 
evolution of creation, the part of the Saviour neces- 
sarily becomes insignificant. He comes simply to 
reveal to us the true idea of things, and to stimulate 
us to saintly self-mortifications ; He is, like Mithra, the 
spirit of the sun, the primary representative of the 
luminous principle ; He is that very primeval man, 
who entered into conflict with darkness, and who was 
separate from all material life ; His birth and His death 
alike are but semblances without reality, and His 
body itself is a phantom. " The nature of light," says 
Mani, '' being simple and true, it could not enter into 
contact with the material essence."! In Jesus, the light 
took the form of flesh, becoming as it were its impalpa- 
ble shadow, but incapable of suffering, for it would be 
absurd to speak of the crucifixion of the shadow of the 
flesh. I The Son of light revealed His essence upon the 
Mount of Transfiguration. § He appeared in human form 
without being man ; He never knew the humiliation of 
human birth. || St. Augustine declares in his " Con- 

'•' " Splendida reddita es agnoscendo." (Saint Augustine, " Opus 
imperfect.," iii. 172. Edit. Migne, x. 131 8.) 

f Ov yap ovaiaQ i]\l>aTO aapKog aXXd ofiOLujuari koI (r%i7juari aapKog 
£(7/cta(707y. (Fragments of Mani in Fabricius, " Biblioth. Graeca," Vol. 
viii. p. 315.) X Fabricius, loc. cit. § Ibid. 

II "Apparuit quidem in hominis specie nee tamen fuit homo." 
("Disput.," Routh, i. 169.) 



70 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

fessions," that at the time when he was a Manichaean, 
he regarded Jesus only as the son of the sun.* 

The world is destined gradually to lose all that it 
contains of the divine ; at the end of time the pri- 
meval man will appear ; matter will then be only an 
inert mass consumed by fire, and the souls which shall 
have lost their divine substance by succumbing to the 
flesh, will be confounded with it, while the ascetic 
saints will triumph in the fulness of divine light. t 
This cannot be the final utterance of the system, for 
matter, as it had no beginning, cannot consistently 
have any end. We may suppose then that the same 
evolution will recommence, and that this succession 
of mythical facts represents the successive phases, or to 
speak more correctly, the permament laws, of uni- 
versal life. It is certain that the doctrine of metem- 
psychosis entered into the Manichaean theory ;| the 
souls which had not preserved their purity saw await- 
ing them a series of ordeals through which they were 
to attain final deliverance. The notion of moral free- 
dom, and the idea of providence, were wholly absent 
from this grossly dualistic system. § Mani supported 
his doctrine by an exegesis which carried the arbitrary 
to the furthest limits. We know that he rejected 
without scruple the whole of the Old Testament. In 
the New, he did not allow himself to be fettered by 
anything in the letter ; was he not the Paraclete, the 
depositary of the higher and final revelations ? He 

* " Ipsum quoque Salvatorem nostrum tanquam de massa luci- 
dissimse molis porrectum ad nostram salutem, ita putabam." 
" Confess. Sancti August.," Lib. vi. x. 20. Edit. Migne, i. 706. 

f "Disput," Routh, V. 67, 68. | Photius, " Codex," 179. 

§ "Tit. Botsra," Lib. ii. p. loi. 



BOOK I. — MANICHiEISM. 7I 

adopted Christian words, while he totally altered their 
meaning.* The sect made use of several apocryphal 
writings, which it interpreted so as to support its own 
tenets. t Morality was with the Manichseans identical 
with asceticism. They professed contempt for a life 
of laborious industry, and, in this respect, diverged 
from the oldest traditions of the " Avesta," which re- 
garded fruitful toil in every department as the holy 
work of Ormuz. The disciple of Mani was to pass 
through material life without touching anything that 
enhanced or embellished existence. '' When they are 
about to eat bread," says Epiphanius, " they first pray 
and pronounce these words : ' I have not gathered in 
nor ground the grain, neither have I sent it to the 
mill. Another has done these things, and has brought 
thee to me. I eat thee without reproaches, for he 
who reaps shall himself be reaped, and he who sends 
corn to the mill shall himself be ground to powder.' "t 
It was not possible to express more clearly the inter- 
diction of all work, lest unwitting injury should be 
done to the luminous particles diffused throughout 
the material universe. The sect had two stages of 
initiation. The mere hearers were not admitted to the 
sacred mysteries, and might continue their common 
life.§ The elect, on the contrary, broke all the bonds 
of society and of marriage, gave themselves up to 
macerations of the body, and submitted to three rites, 

* Photius, " Codex," 179. 

f The Manicheans used, chiefly the "Acta Thorns," the Tlepiodoi 
of Lucius Charinus, and the "Acti Pauh et TheclcC." 

I Epiphanius, " Haeres.," 66. The union of the sexes was vehe- 
mently denounced. " Disput.," Routh, v. yy. 

§ Augustine, "Epistol. Class.," iv. ep. 136, 2. 



72 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

which were the seal of perfectness.* The sign of the 
mouth indicated pureness of language and abstinence 
from all animal food ; the sign of the hand implied a 
renunciation of all manual labour, which might enrich 
and adorn an accursed world ; and, lastly, the sign of 
the bosom — signaculum sinus — was a vow of perpetual 
chastity. 

The Manichgeans regarded baptism as a purification 
of the defilements of material birth ; it was, however, 
only in exceptional use among them. t They set apart 
the Sabbath for fasting. Their great festival was the 
anniversary of the death of Mani, which they cele- 
brated by a sort of mystic passover. A splendid seat, 
covered with precious fabrics, was set up in the midst 
of the building in which they assembled ; this was to 
bring to mind the teaching of the master and the doc- 
trine of deliverance which he had preached.]: The 
Manichasans had no temples, properly so called ; 
prayer and the singing of hymns constituted a great 
part of their worship. Their hymns, judging by the 
fragments which have come down to us, consisted 
chiefly of brilliant descriptions of the abode of light 
and of its inhabitants, the children of the sun.§ 

Such is this system, which exerted a far more im- 
portant influence than is accounted for by its logical or 
religious value. It presents, with a degree of clear- 
ness which must have contributed to its success, the 

''' " Quae sunt ista signacula ? Oris certe et manuum et sinus." 
Augustine, " De Morib. Manich.," Lib. ii. c. lo. 
f Neander, " Kirch. Geschichte," i. p. 568, 569. 
I Augustine, " Contra Epist. Fondament./' c. 8. 
§ See Basnages, work quoted. Vol. ii. p. 701-728. 



BOOK I. — MANICHJEISM. 73 

residue of all the speculative errors, which had from 
the first attempted to transform Christianity.* It is 
evident that its triumph would have led to a restora- 
tion of Persian dualism, pure and simple, which would 
not have differed much from the mysteries of Mithra, 
and that the Pagan idea, in its most essential element 
— the glorification of nature — would have been empha- 
tically reasserted by its means. We may observe, in 
conclusion, that there is no more decisive refutation 
of Gnosticism, than the reductio ah ahsurdum which 
results from its own free development. 

* Our exposition of the Manichsean system sufficiently shows 
how false is the hypothesis on which Baur has based his book on 
the subject ; namely, that Mani had no thought of connecting his 
doctrine with Christianity. 



CHAPTER III. 

JUDAISING HERESY IN THE SECOND AND THIRD 
CENTURIES. 

§ I. The Elkesaites and the Ehionites, 

While nothing could be more untrue to fact than to 
identify primitive Christianity with Judaism, and to 
regard as simple progress that which was in reality a 
vast revolution, it is certain that very close bonds 
attached the new religion to that of the Old Testa- 
ment, by which it had been initiated and proclaimed. 
These bonds might be either broken altogether, or 
clenched so tightly as to arrest all further develop- 
ment, either error being fraught with fatal conse- 
quences. While Gnosticism tends to place a deep 
gulf between the two Testaments, Judaising heresy 
seeks to confound them ; but even in its reactionary 
movement against Gnosticism, it comes under its 
influence, and produces a strangely deformed and per. 
verted Judaism, upon which has passed the blasting, 
withering breath of oriental dualism. 

From the times of the Apostles, there are three 
distinctly-marked sections in the Judseo-Christian 
community. The first remains closely attached to the 
nucleus of apostolic Christianity ; it is, indeed, an im- 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 75 

portant branch of it, and can claim the highest antiquity, 
for it dates from the upper chamber at Jerusalem ; its 
representative and head was James, the brother of the 
Lord, and it continued invariably faithful to the wise 
and conciliatory decisions of the Council of Jerusalem. 
It did not cease to live in perfect harmony with that 
freer section known as the Pauline party, which, after 
all, represented more faithfully the thought of Christ, 
by putting the new wine into a new vessel. The second 
type of Judaso-Christianity is the narrow and intractable 
Pharisaic school, which was eager to transfer to the 
Church all the practices and prejudices of Judaism, 
making circumcision a necessary condition of salva- 
tion, and endeavouring to bring all the converts from 
paganism into bondage under legal forms. St. Paul 
had no more determined and deadly enemies than 
these, either in Galatia or in Greece. 

The third party was the eclectic school, which, 
according to the current tendency of the time, mingled 
oriental with Jewish ideas. At Corinth, as in Crete, 
at Colosse and at Ephesus, the great Apostle had to 
contend strenuously against a false spiritualism, which 
identified evil with matter, forbade marriage, and 
rejected the resurrection of the body, denying first the 
resurrection of Jesus Himself. Cerinthus was the 
fullest exponent of this bastard Judaism, which united 
and combined the gravest errors of the time ; and we 
have seen how St. John had this in view in almost all 
his writings, because it was the gravest danger then 
threatening the Church. 

These three schools of Judaeo-Christianity reap- 
peared in the second century, but strangely modified 



76 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

by the course of events. The destruction of Jerusalem 
made a still more important revolution in the religious 
than in the political sphere.''' Moderate Judseo- 
Christianity saw in the overthrow of the Temple, 
the condemnation of the ancient worship, and began 
accordingly to seek fusion with the Church composed 
of Gentile converts. This coalescent movement, 
which commenced at Pella, where the Christians had 
taken refuge, went on much more rapidly during the 
short and violent reign of Barcocheba, who shed in 
floods the blood of those who were called Nazarenes, 
and who excited, more even than the Romans, the 
animosity of the Jewish fanatics. The eclectic faction 
of Judaso-Christianity only escaped proscription by an 
adherence to the synagogue, which was equivalent to 
a rupture with the Church. This rupture was inevi- 
table when, after the building of ^lia Capitolina by 
Adrian, upon the very site of Jerusalem, an imperial 
decree forbade any adherents of Judaism to dwell in a 
city, all the local associations of which would have 
been incitements to revolt. Thus, the Church which 
quickly established itself in the new city, was com- 
posed, in great part, of Christian converts from 
paganism; to these a considerable num.ber of Chris- 
tians previously belonging to the Judaising party, 
attracted by the love of country, joined themselves, 
abandoning the observance of their ancient worship. 
The Jewish Christians, who remained faithful to their 
national customs, no longer had, in the eyes of the 
Church, the prestige of representing the great tradition 
of Palestine, since they no longer inhabited sacred 
- See " Early Years of Christianity," p. 366 and following. 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 77 

soil ; moreover, they could no more appeal to the 
decrees of the Council of Jerusalem, since the de- 
struction of the Temple had in fact abrogated them, 
rendering impossible the greater part of the obser- 
vances of the ceremonial law, and in particular all that 
related to the sacrifices. To seek to perpetuate the 
practice of Judaism under such circumstances, was to 
transform a transitional measure into a permanent 
and universal principle. In this way a conflict became 
inevitable, and observances which had been legitimate 
a few years before, were transmuted by degrees into 
positive heresy. The moderate school of Judseo- 
Christianity was not proscribed, however, till much 
later, at the time when the union of the Church and 
the Empire, and the decisions of the first great 
Councils, superseded liberty by uniformity. The 
fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries confounded, in 
one common sentence of reprobation, all the sections 
of Judaeo-Christianity, taking no account of their dif- 
ferences, however important. It was not so in the 
second and third centuries : moderate Judseo-Chris- 
tianity was still in existence in the time of Justin 
Martyr, who carefully distinguished it from the second 
school, which we have called the Pharisaic. If he 
thought it his own duty to receive circumcision, he 
nevertheless acknowledged that no such observance 
was obligatory on the converts from paganism, and, 
consequently, that it was not indispensable to salvation. 
Justin declares plainly that the Judaso-Christian of 
this school has his part in eternal life as well as other 
believers. He says : " He will be saved, if he does 
not compel Gentiles by birth, who have been circum- 



78 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

cised in heart, to observe the Mosaic law."*' He speaks 
differently of the Judaisers, who place all the legal 
observances above the Gospel. "As for the Jews," 
says Justin, " who, professing to believe in Christ, would 
yet compel the converts from paganism to adhere to 
the whole law of Moses, under pain of perdition, 
I cannot recognise them as belonging to the Church. "t 
The name of Nazarenes was given to the moderate 
Judseo-Christians, but they gradually became con- 
founded with the second school, that from which 
Justin had distinguished them, and which was cha- 
racterised by its exclusive Judaism. This, in its turn, 
was, to a large extent, absorbed in the third school, 
for the reasons we have indicated. Epiphanius, how- 
ever, gives it a separate place, side by side, with the 
half-Gnostic Ebionites of the ''Clementines;"! it 
preserved its distinctness, like a little streamlet by 
the side of a broad current, owing to its peculiar and 
strongly-marked colour. It involved the Nazarenes 
in its own condemnation ; so that, in the time of 
Irenseus, moderate Judaism, which, for a long time, 
had been regarded as accredited by the Jerusalem 
Council, ceased to occupy any place in the spot which 
had been the nursery of the Church. § That which 

* ^(t)9i)creTaL 6 roiovrog lav fAtj rovg aXXovg dvOpwrrovg. . . . tthOhv 
dyojviZ,tTai ravrd avri^ (pvXciaadv. (Justin, " Dial, contra Tryph.," 47. 
"Opera," p, 265, 266.) 

f 'Eciv Se 01 cLTTp Tov ysvovg rov v/J-srspov TrKJTtveiv Xsyovrsg Ittl tovtov 
Tov xpi<yTOV eic rravTog Kara rov Sea Miocreojg haraxQsvTa vofiov avayKa^ioai- 
^rjv rovg iBvCov Tnarevovrag. . . . rovrovg ovk cnro^kxoiiai. (Ibid.) 

I Epiphanius, " Advers. Hseres.," 29. Augustine, " De baptism, 
contra Donat.," vii. i, and Jerome, "Ad Esaiam," edit. Migne, iv. 
357, speaks also of the Nazarenes. 

§ Iren^us, in his list of heresies, mentions only the Ebionites, 
confounding the Nazarenes with them. 



BOOK I. JUDAISING HERESY. 79 

tended most to alienate the Church from Judaeo-Chris- 
tianity, was its categorical repudiation of the divinity 
of Jesus Christ.* It held very extreme millenarian 
views, and of the Gospels accepted only that of 
Matthew in the Hebrew text.f 

The third school — that which is imbued with oriental 
Gnosticism — excites far more attention, and provokes 
far more discussion, than the other two sections of 
Judseo-Christianity, because it is not a mere phantom 
of the past, reviving an old controversy virtually closed 
by St. Paul, and at this time practically unimportant. 
It was in harmony with the spirit of the time, and 
shared in the favour so readily accorded in that day 
to everything bearing the impress of theosophy. It 
arose first in the same countries which had given birth 
to Essenism, on the grandly desolate shores of the 
Dead Sea, where everything speaks of sadness and the 
curse ; — in that desert of Judasa, which, in the language 
of a great writer, seems to have kept solemn silence 
ever since it heard the voice of Jehovah. The strange 
and melancholy sect which had separated from official 
Mosaism, under the same sense of the overwhelming 
pressure of existence, which in India produced the 
fanatic asceticisna of the Buddhists, naturally received 
a fresh impulse, after the terrible calamities of the 
Roman Conquest. :|: These anchorites alone remained 

* IlfjOi XiotoTou ■>pL\ov dvOpiOTTov von'i^ovrnv. (Epiphanius, " Contra 
Hseres.," xxix.) 

f St. Jerome, " In Esaiam," Lib. xviii. c. 66. (Vol. iv. p. 672.) 
I I cannot subscribe to Ritschl's opinion (" Altcatholisch. 
Kirche," 2nd. edit, p. 179, adopted and elaborated by M. Reville 
" Nouvelle Revue de Theologie," Vol. v. 3rd issue,) as to the purely 
Hebraic origin of Essenism. It is impossible to see in the pro- 
hibition of marriage and the suppression of the sacrifices, a simple 



8o THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

unharmed in the midst of so many reeking ruins, for 
having already abandoned animal sacrifices, they lost 
nothing by the abolition of the Levitical worship. Had 
they not still the most fitting altar for the mystic offer- 
ings of their prayers in that land of death, where 
nature, barren and joyless, seems herself the sternest 
of ascetic votaries, on the borders of those gloomy 
regions, where, according to the dreams of the Budd- 
hists, all tone, colour, form, everything that has life 
in it, dies away ? The excited Judaso-Christians, who 
took refuge in the wilds of Judasa, would inevitably 
assimilate with all that remained of Essenism ; this 
was the only bond by which they could yet attach 
themselves to Judaism, since they found in the prac- 
tices of this party a substitute for temple and altar. 
From this union sprang a singular sect, called the Elke- 
saites, who, in their turn, were to give birth to Gnostic 
Ebionitism.* The name Elkesaites was derived from 
the supposed founder of the sect, who, according to 
vague traditions, received, in the third year of 
Trajan's reign, a mysterious book, containing the true 
doctrine. t This book was said to have been committed 
to him by a gigantic angel, accompanied by a woman, 

development of priestly purism. We here trace an oriental influ- 
ence, the more easily to be accepted that there is no need to suppose 
any transplantation of ideas, whether from Alexandria or India. 
The whole atmosphere was saturated with these elements of 
Gnosticism and Asceticism. 

- With reference to the sect of the Elkesaites, see " Phil.," ix, 
17, 18; Epiphanius, "Contra H^eres.," xix. ; Ritschl, " Altcatho- 
lisch. Kirche," p. 231. Eusebius, " H. E.," vi. 38, quotes a fragment 
of a homily of Origen, delivered at Csesarea against this sect. 

f Origen (apud Eusebius "H. E.,"vi. 38), Epiphanius xix. reduce 
the celestial origin of this book to a simply prophetic character- 
The " Philosophoumena" alone speak of the angel. 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 8l 

whose stature in like manner surpassed all ordinary 
proportions.^' The angel is intended for the Son of 
God, the woman for the Holy Spirit. t Evidently, we 
have in this legend a rough outline of the dualism 
which forms the basis of Gnosticism, and which we 
shall find fully developed in the ''Clementines." The 
person of Elxai belongs itself to metaphysical my- 
thology. The name indeed signifies hidden power, and 
is made symbolical of the mysterious influence of the 
Divinity, or the Holy Spirit, from whom all revelation 
proceeds, t The doctrine of the Elkesaites is still in 
an indistinct and undeveloped state. Oriental Gnos- 
ticism and Jewish or Christian elements have not yet 
become thoroughly amalgamated with it. From Gnos- 
ticism is borrowed the conception of a great masculine 
and feminine duality, placed at the zenith of the 
universe. The prohibition of animal food is also 
derived from Oriental asceticism. The celebration of 
baptism reveals the influence of Christianity, but this 
rite loses all moral significance ; it becomes a magical 
ceremony, which purifies from all sin, even the greatest. § 
"O ye who have committed adultery! " say the ad- 
herents of this sect, " or who have prophesied falsely, if 
you will be converted and receive the remission of sins, 
you will obtain peace, and your lot will be with the 
just, if, after having heard our books, you plunge into 
the water, clothed in all your garments." || This baptism 

* 'Ytto ayysXow, dvai Sk avv avT(^ kuI Or/Xnav. (" Phil.," ix. 1 3.) 

f Tbv fiEV apaiva vibv dvai tov Oeov, rr]v ds 9i]\eav KaXiiaOai ayiov 
TTVivfia. (Ibid., ix. 13.) 

X Epiphanius, " Contra Haeres.," xix. 

§ " Phil.," ix. 15. BaTTTiGf-iaTi XapLtavuv d(p£(Tiv afiapTiwv. (Ibid., 
ix. 13. Comp. Eusebius, vi. 38.) [| " Phil.," ix. 15. 

7 



82 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

is not merely administered in the name of the Father 
and the Son, it is further accompanied with the invoca- 
tion of seven witnesses, which are heaven, the water, 
holy spirits, the angels of prayer, oil, salt, and earth.* 
Clearly these seven spirits are the equivalent of the 
Holy Spirit, whose name was invoked, after that of the 
Father and the Son, in the ordinary baptismal formula. 
It follows that the elements of the world form part 
of the Deity, and we are thus brought back to Oriental 
naturalism. The oil and the salt point to the com- 
munion as it was observed in this sect. Christ is only 
a mere man. He is nevertheless born of a virgin, but 
He has appeared many times in history under various 
forms. t It is impossible to form any clear idea of His 
mission, unless He is one of the manifestations of the 
giant-angel, who brought the book of revelation. 
Probably the sect shared in the anthropomorphic ideas 
of the Jewish mysteries, and supposed a complete 
resemblance between man and the Son of God. The 
Jewish impress is seen in the maintenance of cir- 
cumcision and of legal observances, so far at least 
as they were compatible with the condition of things 
after the overthrow of the Temple. Marriage was 
held in high esteem. J The sect was naturally 
addicted to the chimeras of astrology and magic. 
It made no pretension to Christian heroism, for it 
attached no importance to apostasy. § Incoherent 

^' Xpuivrai 06 nraoiCaiQ km j3a7rriafiaaiv Irrl ry ruiv aroix^iojv ofioXoyi^. 
" Phil.," X. 29.) 

t Ibid., ix. 14. According to Epiphanius, they called Christ 
t/ie Great King. (Epiphanius, " Hseres.," xix.) 

\ Ibid. ^€iv Kara vb\xov Zjr\v. (" Phil.," ix. 14.) 

§ Epiphanius, " Contra Hseres.," xix. Origen apud Eusebius, 
" H. E.," vi. 38. 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 83 

as it was, this doctrine lived for a considerable 
length of time, and endeavoured to disseminate itself 
beyond its obscure nursery, for Origen met one of 
its missionaries at Csesarea in 231, and St. Hippolytus 
found another in Rome at the commencement of the 
third century. 

Gnostic Ebionitism, which had its origin in the 
sect of the Elkesaites, carries the Oriental and ascetic 
tendency to its furthest limits. It gives it an elaborate 
and piquant form, well adapted to please sickly imagi- 
nations, and minds greedy of empty speculations.* 
The very name of this sect bespeaks its character. 
Some have sought to trace in it the name of its founder, 
but Ebio, like Elxai, can be found in the nimbus of 
legend alone. The meaning of the term is plain. In 
Hebrew it signifies poor. The Ebionites were then 
called the poor, not, as has been asserted, on account 
of the poverty of their conception of Christ, whom 
they regarded as a mere man,t but because they 
pretended to realise the ideal of the beatitudes, that 
poverty of spirit, that absolute renunciation of all 
things, which was inseparable in their view from the 
most exaggerated asceticism. The name may have 
been sometimes given in Palestine to all the Christians 
indiscriminately,]: but after the rupture of the exclusive 
Judaeo-Christians with the Church, it was applied to 
the latter only, and perhaps also by some of the 
Fathers to the Nazarenes, a sect which might easily 
be confounded by the ill-informed observer with those 

'■- On Ebionitism, see Irenseus, "Adv. Hasres.," i. 26; Epiphanius, 
" Haeres.," xxx. ; " Phil.,"' vii. 34 ; RitschI, work quoted, p. 204. 
I This was Gieseler's idea (" Tschirner Archiv.," iv. 307). 
I Minut. Fehx, " Octav.,"' 36. 



84 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

of more pronounced opinions. We shall indicate the 
general features of the Ebionite doctrine before its more 
learned elaboration in the " Clementines." According 
to Irenseus and Hippolytus, its adherents admitted that 
the world had been created by God.* They thus dis- 
pensed with the intermediary link of the Demiurgus, 
but made no true return to Christian theism, as is clear 
from the pantheism of the " Clementines." They 
were agreed as to the necessity of circumcision, and 
the observance of the law.t St. Paul was the object 
of their animadversion, and they treated him as an 
apostate. They formally denied the divinity of Jesus 
Christ, and regarded Him as a mere man, born of 
Joseph and Mary. His perfect piety had raised Him 
to the high dignity He had attained, while there was 
no derogation of the law of Moses. Each one of 
His disciples, therefore, by following in His footsteps, 
might hope to become in his turn a Christ. | 

According to the testimony of Origen, some of the 
Ebionites admitted the supernatural birth of Jesus, but 
without paying Him homage as the Son of God.§ It 
is probable that Epiphanius has applied to them in- 
discriminately the system of the " Clementines." We 
must receive, therefore, with much reservation, that 
which he attributes to the sect as a whole. It cannot 
be denied, however, that the theosophic development 
assumed by it was in harmony with its original 
tendency. It is certain that the Ebionites very 

* Tuv Kodfxov vTTo Tov bvT(t)Q Oeov yeyovsvai. (" Phil,," vii. 34.) 
f "'EOecTLv ' lovSdiicolg Z^CJai. (Ibid., vii. 35.) 
X AvveaOai xP'^<^TOvg ytvkadai. (Ibid., vii. 34.) 
§. Origen, " Contra Cels.," ii. i. 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 85 

early delighted in the elaborate metaphysical theories 
of Essenism, and entered into speculations as to the 
relations between the world and God. In all likeli- 
hood the transcendental mysticism of Judaism, which 
already contained the germs of the Kabbala, exerted a 
great influence over them. They derived from it the 
notion of the ideal and eternal man, — that Adam 
Cadmon, who is the very representative of God. 



§ II. The ^^Clementines.'' 

The development of the great Gnostic systems 
gave a powerful impulse to Ebionitism. The visions 
of the Elkesaites tended in the same direction, and 
under these combined influences there was produced 
an entire literature, half-Romanesque, half-meta- 
physical, of which we have the oldest and most 
authentic expression in the " Clementine Homilies," 
written about the year 150, — not at Rome, as the 
Tiibingen school has asserted, but in Oriental Syria, 
which had become the meeting-point of Jewish ideas 
with the phantasmagoria of Gnosticism. Let us 
attempt to give an idea of this singular book before 
we endeavour to unfold the system it contains, and 
to mark the place it occupies in the history of 
heresies.* 

'■' This name, the " Clementines," comprehends an entire litera- 
ture, having one theme — ^the pretended relations of Clement of 
Rome with the Apostle Peter. Christian antiquity recognised the 
following works, which may be all placed in the same category : 
I St. The "Homilies," of which we possess the complete text, since 
the discovery made by Dressel, of Homily xx., in a manuscript of 
the Vatican Library. It is from this edition I quote. 2nd. The 



86 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The " Homilies " are prefaced by a letter from Peter 
to James, the Lord's brother, notifying him of the 
despatch of the genuine account of his disputes with 
Simon Magus, and urging him to transmit his teaching 
only to intimate disciples, and thus to found a secret 
tradition. This letter is followed by the attestation 
that all had really transpired as said by the Apostle. 
Then comes an epistle from Clement of Rome to 
James, announcing the death of Peter, and containing 
his dying wish for the transmission of his charge to 
Clement. 

These three documents have, as we shall see pre- 
sently, a very important bearing on the ecclesiastical 
question, for, in spite of their heretical origin, they 
reveal a sacerdotal vein of thought, which found only 

" Recognitiones," a Latin translation of Rufinus, the original of 
which is lost. 3rd. The " Epitome," published first by Turnebus 
(1553), and afterwards by Cotelier. This is a meagre extract from 
the " Homilies." 4th. Several orthodox or expurgated editions of 
the " Homihes " and " Recognitiones." We cannot enter into the 
voluminous discussion as to the respective dates of the "Homilies" 
and " Recognitiones ;" and as to the place of their composition, 
Baur and his school will hear of no place but Rome for their 
authorship, in order that they may make these writings play the 
part of conciliation in the fusion of the Jewish and Pauline ele- 
ments, from which they hold the Catholic Church to have resulted. 
They affirm also the priority of the " Recognitiones." We shall 
confine ourselves to sustaining the contrary opinion on these two 
main points. We admit with Ulhorn, in his excellent monograph 
upon the " Clementines "(" Homil. Recogund.," Tiibingen, 1854), 
that the " Homilies," which themselves show some traces of inter- 
polation, are anterior to the "Recognitiones" for the following 
reasons: — ist. The quotations from the canonical Gospels in the 
" Clementines " are more free, less textual than in the " Recog- 
nitiones." 2nd. The letter of Clement which heads the " Homilies" 
is an evident recasting of the close of the third homily. Now, 
according to Rufinus (" Ep. ad Gaudentium "), this formed part of 
the "Recognitiones." These, then, were themselves a recon- 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 87 

too susceptible a medium in the Church. The 
*' Homilies" themselves turn upon the marvellous 
incidents of the meeting between Clement and Peter, 
and upon the memorable dispute between the Apostle 
and Simon Magus". 

The commencement of the book is very fine. It 
describes eloquently the sufferings of Clement, when, 
consumed with the thirst for truth, he went about 
seeking it at the doors of all the schools, till at 
Alexandria he met Barnabas, who led him to St. Peter 
in Palestine. Arrived at Csesarea, he was speedily 
convinced by the Apostle, who proposes to him that 
he shall assist at the great public controversies which 
are about to take place between himself and the leadef 
of heresy — the famous Simon of Samaria. 

Pe.er employs the time gained by the adjournment 

structicn of the " Homilies." 3rd. The Simon of the " Homihes '^ 
resembes in all points the Simon of the " Philosophoumena." In 
the " R^cognitiones " his doctrine is a confused medley, making 
large use of the Roman tradition, which was of much later date 
than thct preserved by St. Hippolytus. 4th. The doctrine of the 
"Homilies" is uniform and consistent with itself; that of the 
" Recogritiones " is without coherence, and is dependent on the 
earlier tjpe. As to the place of their composition, there is no- 
thing in .he " Homilies " to suggest Rome. The analogies with 
Elkesais7i. are obvious, and point to the same birthplace,—namely, 
to Oriental Syria. It is certain that the " Clementines " as a whole 
were of ai earlier date than Origen (235 A.D.), for in his com- 
mentary 01 Matthew he borrows from them, if not in words at 
least in id^as (Orig., "Ad Matth.," xxvi. 6). The precise date of 
the "Homiies" is subsequent to Marcion (150), since their polemics 
are directed against him. The date of the " Recognitiones " 
cannot ha^e been earlier than the year 170, since it contains 
a fragment of Bardesanes' book, " De fato," which, according to 
Eusebius, vas extant at that time (" H. E.," iv. 30). We are 
thus brough to the year 1 80 for the later writing, and may fix the 
former ten pars earlier. 



88 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

of this debate, to instruct Clement in the nature 
of true prophecy, on the authority of the Scriptures, 
and on the errors which are blended with truth in 
the sacred books. The "Clementines" contain two 
great controversies between the Apostle and the heretic, 
the one at Caesarea, which lasts three days and turns 
mainly upon the interpretation of the Bible; the other 
at Laodicea, upon lying visions, upon the supreme 
God, and the nature of good. In the interval, other 
discussions on Paganism, on astrology, and on ihe 
devil, are raised by various speakers. All these 
discussions are held in the different towns wJiere 
Peter is represented as carrying on his apostolic 
mission, founding Churches, baptising converts, ap- 
pointing bishops, and ever in pursuit of Simon, 
who — worthy founder of Gnosticism — seems, lihe his 
doctrines, perpetually to elude the seeker. In these 
wanderings, Clement meets with his parents, of whom 
he had long lost all traces ; his mother receives holy 
baptism at Laodicea; his brothers were already among 
Peter's disciples, though he had not known it His 
father offers more resistance. Clement is himself 
the subject of a very singular adventure. Simon, 
by his sorceries, has given him an extraDrdinary 
resemblance to himself; but he is caught in his own 
snare, for Peter sends the false Simon to Antioch, 
where heresy had gained much ground, ;o make 
a sort of public abjuration, which all the fvitnesses 
ascribe to the magician himself. The apostle of the 
*' Clementines" does not scruple thus to us^ a pious 
fraud. 

It is in this framework, adorned not x'nskilfully 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 8g 

according to the taste of the time, that the system 
of Ebionite-Gnosticism unfolds its endless intricacies. 
That which first of all impresses the reader is a certain 
expansion of Judaism. Just as Paganism, before be- 
coming extinct, endeavoured to renew its youth by 
borrowing from Christianity, in the mysteries of Mithra 
for example, so the Judaising tendency strives to catch 
the Gospel character of universality. It will abate 
nothing in reality from its pretensions, but it will cloak 
them under a Christian garb. Intractable in substance, 
it is ready to make concessions in form, and does not 
hesitate to substitute baptism for circumcision, doubt- 
less under the influence of the sect of the Elkesaites. 
But it rejects, none the less, all that constitutes the 
originality of the new religion, the doctrine of grace in 
particular, in order to substitute for it a legal system. 
Thus it directs its most severe assaults against 
the great Apostle of the Gentiles, who is evidently in- 
tended in Simon Magus. In fact, Peter in the seven- 
teenth Homily, occupies exactly the stand-point taken 
by those Judaising teachers of Corinth and Galatia, 
who refused to Paul the title of apostle, on the ground 
that he had not seen Jesus Christ with his own eyes 
in the days of His flesh, and could appeal only to the 
vision on the road to Damascus. ''Thou dost exalt 
thyself," says Simon to Peter, " aiflrming that thou 
hast a true understanding of the words of the Master, 
because thou hast seen Him with thine eyes, and 
heard Him with thine ears, and that he who has only 
had a vision or a dream cannot have the same as- 
surance. But thou dost err, for it is not enough to 
have heard any one in order to have a full assurance. 



go THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

It may be asked if one who presents himself to us 
in a human form may not deceive us ? A vision, on 
the contrary, is a direct revelation of the Deity." 
" He who believes in a vision, or in an apparition, 
or a dream," repHes the Apostle, ''is sure of nothing, 
for it may be he has only seen a demon or a lying 
spirit, which feigns to be that it is not."* 

It is moreover obvious that Simon Magus in many 
respects recalls Marcion, for the "Clementines" are 
directed essentially against his system ; but as Marcion 
claims to be a disciple of St. Paul, his doctrine is 
virtually assailed in the person of the great Apostle. 
He is, then, constantly the object of Peter's attacks. 

The fundamental principle of the " Clementines " 
is the identity of Christianity with Judaism. There 
is only one Divine religion, ever the same in sub- 
stance, which from Adam to Jesus has been per- 
petuated in the world. " Both doctrines," says Peter, 
" are one.t God accepts alike the believer in either." 
This religion has had as its organs the great prophets, 
whose testimony is preserved in Holy Scripture, but 
not uncorruptedly, for false prophecy, always at war 
with the true, has found means to introduce lying 
oracles into the Book of God.| It cannot, therefore, 
be accepted without reserve. We must be able to 
distinguish between error and truth. The Scriptures 
contain much that is false about God. Paganism is 
absolutely bad. It had no conception whatever of the 

^- "Homil," xvii. 13, 14, 

f Miag yap dt dfj.cpoTepioi' dtdaaKaXiag ovarjQ. (Ibid., viii, 6.) 
X IloXXd yap \pevdi] Kara rov 6eov irpoabXatov ai ypa(pai Xoyc^ TOVT(f. 
(Ibid., ii. 38.) 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 9I 

Deity, and lost itself in darkness.* Nevertheless, 
by a strange inconsistency, a certain sense of things 
divine is accorded to the human soul. It can discern 
and hail the true divine prophecy by a rapid and 
spontaneous intuition. *' Truth," says Peter, " is 
deposited in germ in our heart. "t 

The " Clementines " bear the impress of the purely 
intellectual character of Gnosticism. Religion is only 
teaching, prophecy, never redemption ; it is a divine 
word, not a divine work. Jesus Christ is a teacher. He 
is the true Prophet, not a Saviour. Truth can only be 
found by the true prophet of truth. The true prophet 
is he who knows all things and all thoughts, and who 
is without sin. I 

He came to dissipate the dark clouds which hung 
about His house, and to fill it with the pure light of 
day, not to rebuild it. His perfect holiness is ad- 
mitted, but He is none the less shorn of His divinity. 
He Himself is said to have declined this high dignity, 
*'The Lord did not set Himself forth as God."§ He 
is not, however, a man like any other man. He has 
appeared on various occasions in history under different 
names. He is the ideal man, the primeval man, 
realising perfectly the image of God, the Adam of 
Paradise, who was the great manifestation of true 
prophecy, which is identical with spiritual power, or 
the Son of God. This true prophecy was manifested 
first partially by Moses, then completely in Jesus, who 

* "Homil," ii. 7. f Ibid., xvii. 18. 

X 'n.po(pi]Tr]Q dk dXr}9rjQ iariv 6 Trdvra ttclvtots. dSojg, dvaixdpTTjTog. 
(Ibid,, iii. 11.) 

§ Ovre eavTOv 9ebv elvuL dvTjyopivatv. (Ibid., xvi. 1 5.) 



92 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

is its most perfect representative since Adam, or rather 
who is Adam himself. We quote the very text of the 
*' Clementines" : *^ Piety is evidenced pre-eminently 
in the recognition of the Spirit of Christ in the man 
formed by God at the commencement of this economy. 
Under various forms and names,* He has come down 
through all the ages, till at length He obtains repose, 
and receives the anointing of the Divine love, in re- 
compense for the work which He has accomplished. 
He it is who has been the universal ruler." 

This identification of a slightly Christianised Judaism 
with ideal humanity, gave the basis for the uni- 
versality of the " Clementines," without making any 
real concession to the essential principles of the 
Gospel. Salvation was always connected with legal 
observances. The substitution of baptism for circum- 
cision was only a change of form. The Christian 
sacrament was celebrated on purely Jewish principles, 
since it incorporated the convert with the people of 
God by an outward act in the same way as circum- 
cision. The notion of pardon and of justifying faith 
was merged in that of works. " God has granted both 
to the Hebrews and to the Gentiles," says Peter, in the 
" Clementines," " the faculty of believing in the masters 
of truth. Each has been able by his own judgment 
to perform good works, and the recompense is in 
justice awarded to the doers. They would have had 
no need either of Moses or of Jesus Christ, if they had 
been willing themselves to be guided by their own 
reason. "t There could be no more explicit denial 

* Mop(j)dg aXKdaocov tov aiuJva rpkx^i. (" Homil.," iii. 20.) 
f Ibid., viii. 5. 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 93 

of the fall, and the necessity of redemption. It is 
always a frigid and false pharisaic virtue, which 
claims heaven as its reward, while allowing that the 
pains of the other life will cover the arrears of the 
debt. Chastisement is enough to effect deliverance.* 
Devotion to vain observances will outweigh the 
eternal claims of morality. Religion is a matter of 
rites and ceremonies ; only the necessities of the 
time and the influence of Essenism have modified the 
ritual. Ablutions take the place of sacrifices, but 
the principle remains the same. It is still the sort 
of bargaining which will purchase, not accept, the 
gifts of God. '' The Divine religion," we read in the 
'' Clementines," " consists in these points : to worship 
God alone, to believe only in the prophet of the truth, 
to receive baptism for the forgiveness of sins, to be 
thus born again in the purifying stream of saving 
water ;t to abstain from the table of demons, — that 
is to say, from meats offered to idols, from beasts 
strangled or slain by other beasts, or still holding 
the blood ; to live in purity, and to perform ablutions 
after the sexual relations. Women are bound to ob- 
serve carefully the purifications prescribed by the law. 
All are to be sober, to do good, to avoid injustice, 
to look for life eternal from the Almighty God, and 
to obtain His favour by incessant prayers and suppli- 
cations." Charity and forgiveness of sins find no 
place in this meagre morality. The " Clementines " 
thus openly assail the doctrine of St. Paul, as well 

^'^ " Homil.," xi. 16. 

f Ei'g a(j)E(yiv afiapriCbv ^arcTuQrivai, avayevvr]Qt}vai Oiiy Sid tov goj^ovtoq 
vdaroQ. (Ibid., vii. 8.) 



94 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

as the exaggerated interpretation put upon it by 
Marcion in his vehement opposition to Judaism. 

The speculative part of the system is especially 
directed against the positive dualism of the famous 
Gnostic. The ''Clementines" endeavour to get rid 
of the Demiurgus, and to formulate a rigid mono- 
theism. They do not succeed, because they thus 
abandon the moral ground, and have recourse to 
theosophy, to explain the origin of evil. The cardinal 
point of the " Clementines " is the unity of God. 
*' Know before all things that His power is shared 
with none."* This one God bears no resemblance to 
the bottomless abyss of the Valentinians, nor to the 
ineffable One of Philo. He has a bodily form, and 
as all form must have its limitation, He is enclosed 
in the vast void as in His dwelling-place. t He is 
the heart of the universe, from which all proceeds, 
to which all returns.! If the "Clementines" insist 
upon this strange theory of the form of God, it is 
to establish one of their favourite doctrines — the 
perfect resemblance of man to his Creator. It is 
again for the same reason that the Divine wisdom, 
which is, as it were, the productive virtue of the 
Most High, — " His creative hand opened to give birth to 
universal life," — is assimilated to the female element. § 
Thus God, like the first man, contains in Himself 
the male and female element. This is the basis of 
that law of duality which applies to the whole uni- 

* Tlpb Trdvrujv ivvoov oti ovdeig avT(^ avvapxti. (" Homil.," iii. 37.) 

t Qiov TOTTOQ Irrrl to i.ir) ov. (Ibid., xvii. 8.) | Ibid., xvii. 9, 

§ "H ^e (jotpia ijvwTai fjtv mq ^?^x>/ t(^ Bf-o), licrdveraL Se air avTOv, cjg 

X^'P, ^r]jxiovpyovaa to ttclv' ha tovto Se Kai dg avOpojiroq eysvtTO air avTov 

Se TrporiXOe Kal TO 9fj\v. (Ibid., xvii. 12.) 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 95 

verse, only in God it does not destroy the essential 
and eternal unity. That Sophia, who is also called 
the child of God, is to God that which Eve was to 
Adam. She evidently represents the inferior element, 
designated in ordinary Gnosticism under the name 
of the Demiurgus, and we thus find invincible dualism 
carried even into this exalted sphere of the Divine 
unity. By an inconsistency, which would be strange 
in a more logical system, this Divine wisdom, which 
is the inferior element in God, becomes the good 
element in the world. This is easy to comprehend. 
The Divine wisdom, in so far as it is the direct cause 
of the material creation, may be an inferior element 
compared to the one God, but is none the less superior 
to matter, as the pure ideal is above its actual rea- 
lisation. Wisdom becomes the right hand of God, 
while the prince of the material world, who is its 
personification, is His left hand.*' He is called Satan, 
or the Devil. Thus we find in creation the great law 
of dualities. t It may be traced through all orders 
of existences, always giving the preference to good 
over evil till the creation of man, who is the point 
of junction of the two series, and who inaugurates the 
reverse order, for in the human sphere evil always 
takes precedence of good.| 

Let us look more closely into the mode of the 
world's creation. The Sophia brings into operation 
the eternal matter, which is before virtually in ex- 
istence, and is, as it were, the body of God. This 
matter is essentially flexible and susceptible of any 

* 'kpiarepa tov Oeov Svvafiic. (" Homil./' vii. 2.) 

t Tbv Kavova TTiQ ovlvyiaQ. (Ibid., ii. l8.) | Ibid., ii. l6. 



96 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

transformation, so that, under the action of the Divine 
breath of the Sophia, the air is changed into water, 
and the water again, becoming sohdified, is changed 
into stone and earth ; the stones striking together 
produce fire. " Did not God change the rod of Moses 
into a serpent, that is to say, into an animated being, 
which subsequently became a rod again ? Did not 
that same rod turn the water of the Nile into blood, 
and then the blood again to water ? Thus is it with 
man ; the spirit breathed into the dust made it flesh, 
which returns to dust again."* The four elements, 
which are the dry, the moist, air, and fire, are neuter 
or indifferent in a moral point of view, being neither 
good nor bad at the time of their production. They 
are endowed, however, with a kind of spontaneity or 
liberty ; they combine at will,t and from this com- 
bination results the devil, called also the prince of 
this world. He is the soul of this great body of the 
universe. He represents justice, while the Sophia 
represents love;t he is the king of the present world, 
while the Sophia reigns over the world to come. The 
dualities succeed each other in the order indicated : 
earth, then heaven ; day, then night. Adam is made 

'•' " Homil.," XX. 6. 

t 'Atto tov Oioii f.iev 7rpotk€\r}VTai to. Trpwriora (jroixi^ia rkaaapa, oQ^v Sij 
Kal Trarrip Tvyxavei TrdarjQ oixriag, ov tijq yvw/xijg Trjg KaTO. rrjv Kpaaiv. 
(Ibid., XX. 9.) The text of Dressel had ov^rjg yv^n^g. Moeller's 
correction (" Gesch. der Kosmolog.," p. 465) seems to me ex- 
cellent. God is the father of the elements, but He is not the 
cause of the thought which determines their combination. That 
is the province of hberty. 

t Qeog dTriveifie fSacTLXeiag Ivo ^vaiv rimv, dya9(p -f fcat Trovripcp, dovg rqj 
ukv KaKi^ TOV irapovTog Koafxov [xeTO. vojxov rijv (iaaiKdav, war dv '^x^tv 
i^oiKTiav Ko\dZ,Eiv Tovg ddiKovvrag' T(p Sk dyaQij) tov l<j6ixevov diSiov alt^va. 
(Ibid., XV. 7-) 



BOOK I. — JUDAISIXG HERESY. 97 

in the image of God.- He is His living representative, 
the great prophet of the truth, but he contains in 
himself the female element, or Eve, which is false 
prophecy. Human history is divided between the 
true prophecy and the false. Both are found in Holy 
Scripture, on which we are to exercise the elective 
faculty. The male element, the element of the good 
and true, appears in the true Jewish prophecy, and 
is concentrated in Jesus, the prophet by pre-eminence. 
The female and evil element, which has corrupted 
the sacred book itself, has its full development in 
Paganism. t Idolatry was brought to earth by the 
fallen angels changed into demons ; their coming to 
earth was designed for a good end, namely, to chastise 
the ingratitude of men towards God, by impelling 
those who had been guilty of it to the most shameless 
passions, and inflicting on them the deepest dishonour. 
To gratify their covetousness, they had changed them- 
selves into diamonds and all sorts of precious stones. 
Finally, they allowed themselves to be inflamed with 
the basest desires. Enamoured of female beaut}^ 
they fell into various adulteries, which gave birth to 
giants. These, gratifying by vast massacres their 
bloodthirsty souls, caused malarious vapours to arise 
from the sodden soil, which produced sicknesses. 
The demons led mankind into idolatry, and taught 
man the arts of magic. + This absurd legend was 
designed to pour contempt upon the pagan nations. 
Since the time of Christ the two conflicting dominions 

* EiKujv yap 9eov 6 dvOpojTroQ. (" Homil.," xi. 4.) 

f 'O dparjv oXojc aXijOeia, // 9{]Xeia oXr] TrXdvt]. (Ibid., iii. 2/.) 

I Ibid., viii. 12, t^f seq. 



go THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

are still in active opposition. The present age, the 
world with its shows and seductions, leads astray the 
majority of men. The true disciples of Jesus are 
the humble and the poor, who live for the age to come, 
under the guidance of eternal wisdom, and practising 
all the prescribed ordinances. If the "Clementines" 
seem at first to recognise the free-will of man,* they 
soon withdraw the concession, for according to the 
system, evil no less than good is in conformity with 
the will of God.t He uses His left as well as His 
right hand, and is as adorable when He smites and 
punishes as when He blesses and rewards. The 
devil, who thus represents justice, is His servant in 
a manner. He carries out His designs no less than 
the Sophia. The false prophecy is as necessary as 
the true. I We are surprised, after such declarations, 
to hear of the punishment of the wicked, but it is 
only a seeming punishment, for hell is the paradise 
of the demon, who finds there an abode in harmony 
with his nature. As for the good, they are to be 
absorbed in God, "as the vapours of the mountain 
are absorbed by the sun."§ Other passages suggest 
the idea that the entire visible universe will be lost 
in the Divine unity, the final centre of eternal repose, 
as it was the focus from which all life proceeded. 

It is evident that this attempt to resolve Gnosticism 
into an idealised Judaism is not successful. The 
"Clementines" cannot get rid of the Demiurgus; 

* "EKacTTOQ l^ovaiav i%£i TrdBtcQai npoQ to irpdooav ayaOa rj KaKoc. 
(" Homil.," XX. 3.) 

f TiS')v Sk dvo TOVTOJV 6 'irepog tov erepov iKtid^eTai, 6eov KtKivaaVTOQ. 
(Ibid., XX. 3.) 

I Ibid., XX. 3. § Ibid., xx. 9. 



BOOK I. — JUDAISING HERESY. 99 

their attempt to merge it in God is vain. It is still 
present as the eternal limitation of the Divine unity 
and goodness. By a bold stroke they proclaim that 
evil is only a name, and that in substance it is identical 
with good ; but a change of appellation is not a change 
of essence. Evil remains no less evil to the con- 
science. The claim of this complex system to respect 
lies in its very contradictions, in that assertion of 
liberty, which is absurd from the logical point of 
view, but which is the true voice of conscience. The 
system resolves itself none the less into an idealistic 
pantheism, which only moderates the excesses of as- 
ceticism by virtue of its Jewish origin. A doctrine born 
in the land of the patriarchs could not defame mar- 
riage like an Indian sect. Gnostic dualism, though 
far from being vanquished by Ebionitism, reappears 
under a new disguise in the " Clementines," and both 
schools are soon submerged in the naturalistic current 
which carries them away, and which is no other than 
ancient paganism itself. 

An accurate study of the history of Judseo-Chris- 
tianity in the course of the second century, enables us 
to estimate justly the value of Hegesippus' testimony 
to the general state of the Church. That Father 
declared, in the year 160, " that he found it every- 
where in perfect accordance with the law, the prophets, 
and the commandments of the Lord."* Some have 
concluded from these words that the Jewish tendency 
was predominant in all the Christianity of that time. 
But this is attaching to the word a meaning far too 

* 'Ev iicdory Sk Siad'o'x^y koL ev kKatyry ttoXh ovTit)Q 'i\ei. loQ 6 vofxoQ 
KTjpvTTei ml OL TTpoipriTai Koi 6 KvpLog. (Hegesippus apud Eusebius, 
"H. E.,"iv. 22.) 



100 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

exact. Hegesippus appeals simply to the authority 
of the Scriptures taken as a whole, and as they were 
ordinarily placed in opposition to Gnosticism. As the 
Gnostics assailed mainly the Old Testament, they must 
be met on that ground, and it naturally played an 
important part in the controversy. Nothing can be 
argued from the portrait of James drawn by Hegesip- 
pus, which in many features recalls the ideas of the 
Nazarenes, for that description corresponds perfectly 
to the state of the Church at Jerusalem in its first 
period, and to the particular place filled by the brother 
of the Lord. This is history, not doctrine. As to 
the Jewish origin of Hegesippus himself, nothing is 
less sustained by evidence.* Unless then we put a 
forced construction on his language, no conclusion 
can be drawn from it contrary to the reality of the 
facts as gathered from the general history of the 
second century. Judseo-Christianity held on an obscure 
existence under the name of Nazareneism wherever 
it did not coalesce with Oriental and Gnostic ideas. 
It nevertheless exerted an indirect influence upon the 
Church, diffusing through the general atmosphere ideas 
and influences, the traces of which we shall discover 
again and again. 

- See Ritschl, " Altcat. Kirche," 2nd edit., p. 268. 



CHAPTER IV, 



MONTANISM. 



We place Montanism in the category of Judaising 
heresies, although it is not, like Ebionitism, connected 
in its origin with the Synagogue. It is none the less 
a retrogression towards Mosaism, both in its general 
tendency and in the forms and ceremonies adopted 
by it. Judaising heresy, considered in its principle, 
arises out of the defalcations of Christian spirituality. 
Nothing is more difficult to maintain than the reign 
of true liberty. The law of the letter, with its 
numberless precepts, is more limited than the law 
of the spirit, which embraces the entire life. Hence 
that constant tendency of the human heart, to ex- 
change the yoke of an inconvenient and exacting 
freedom for a definite and therefore limited law of 
commandments. Evangelical morality, which makes 
love the best reward of love, places man at a height 
where he can with difficulty sustain himself. He 
prefers the glories of a theocracy to the purely ideal 
paradise of St. John and St. Paul, which is briefly 
contained in the grand words : ''It doth not yet appear 
what we shall be, but we know that when he shall 
appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him 
as he is."* Again, for those who shrink from evil 
* I John iii. 2. 



, 



102 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

and its pollutions, asceticism seems singularly to facili- 
tate the moral strife ; for, by assimilating the corporeal 
element with sin, it gives them the hope of overcoming 
it. Legalism, apocalyptic visions, asceticism — these are 
the three main elements of that Judaeo-Christianity 
which has reappeared so often in the Church under 
various names, but never with more power than 
in Montanism. This has exercised no unimportant 
influence upon official orthodoxy, and the condemna- 
tion that has been repeatedly passed upon it has not 
prevented it from leaving in the Church a hidden 
leaven easy to discover. 

Montanism differed markedly from primitive Judaeo- 
Christianity in this respect — that it recognised without 
reservation the superiority of the Gospel over all the 
religious institutions which had preceded it. It even 
displayed on one main point a spirit of greater liberality 
than the Church ; it repudiated strongly the sacer- 
dotalism which was gaining ground on all sides. We 
have then to deal here with a tendency, not with a 
school of Judaism ; but that tendency, with the reser- 
vations we have noted, was clearly a step backward, 
a deviation from the ways of spiritual Christianity, 
although Montanism assumes to be the highest mani- 
festation of the new spirit. The manner in which 
it favours and formulates legalism, its apocalyptic 
visions, its extravagant asceticism, all mark it as 
Jewish in spirit, if not by origin and tradition. 

The very antipodes of Gnosticism, Montanism 
waged the sternest warfare with it, yet it did not 
find grace in the eyes of the Church, which cast 
it away from her, though it had produced the most 



BOOK I. — MONTANISM. IO3 

brilliant and eloquent of her apologists. This sen- 
tence of exclusion was pronounced before the great 
Councils and the union of the Church with the em- 
pire: it was the spontaneous verdict of the Christian 
conscience, singularly modified in the case of Ter- 
tullian, who, in spite of all his passionate extrava- 
gances remains a venerated Father of the Church. 
It is just to recognise that Montanism was more 
than a mere difference of opinion ; it was not com- 
patible with a Church which was to live and assume 
an organised form; it opened the door to all that 
was visionary, to all the vagaries of the imagination, 
and left no basis for a religious association. The 
exposition of its doctrine will show that even 
when it remained in harmony with the Church on 
the fundamental points of doctrine, it fell into such 
extremes of exaggeration, that it could not be con- 
tained within any existing forms. It cannot, however, 
be treated as heresy in the same way as Gnosticism, 
for it maintains the substance of the faith. " The 
Cataphrygians, or Montanists," says Epiphanius, " ac- 
cept the whole of sacred Scripture, both the Old 
and New Testament, and confess also the resurrection 
of the dead ; they hold the same views as the Holy 
Catholic Church with regard to the Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit."* Tertullian fought against Gnosticism 
with the same weapon as the orthodox defenders of 
the Church; his views on the person of Jesus Christ 
participate in the more or less vague and fluctuating 
character of the theology of the time, without in- 
curring in any respect the charge of heresy, which 
- Epiphanius, " Heeres.," 48. 



104 'l^HE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

would doubtless have been brought against them two 
centuries later. This orthodoxy in the substance of its 
doctrine did not, however, give Montanism the right 
to claim its place in evangelical catholicity, for it 
was itself a principle of implacable and irreconcilable 
exclusion. We must bear in mind this complexity 
of the situation, in order to appreciate justly this 
great movement. On the one hand, it connects 
itself with the orthodoxy of its time ; we shall not 
therefore hesitate to place Tertullian, as he is placed 
by all the historians of doctrine, among the most 
illustrious theologians of the Church, by virtue of that 
great portion of his work which is free from any 
sectarian impress. It is just this agreement on fun- 
damental points, which enabled Montanism to exert 
so much influence over the Church before its repu- 
diation by it. There is an entire period of its history, 
during which it is only a party, or school, treated with 
other parties on a footing of equality. For the present 
we have to occupy ourselves with Montanism only 
in that later stage, when it had become a doctrine 
or sect apart, placing itself outside the bounds of 
the evangelical catholicity of the early ages. It 
flung itself, so to speak, into a cross-road which 
could lead nowhere, for it diverged from the normal 
development of religious thought and Christian society, 
although on more than one point it was more in the 
right than its adversaries, and received its first im- 
pulse from a nobler inspiration. 

That inspiration was the pursuit of the most elevated 
and austere ideal ; an ideal, however, so conceived 
that the Church could no longer find a footing upon 



BOOK I. — MONTANISM. I05 

earth, but must be necessarily reduced to an asso- 
ciation of latter-day saints. The fundamental error 
which marred this grand inspiration, was the failure 
to comprehend the operation of Christianity except 
under the form of a permanent miracle ; it did not 
recognise the supernatural as taking possession of the 
natural order, penetrating and transforming it ; it 
marked out the two domains as in direct and con- 
stant opposition. The Christian life was not merely 
referred to a miraculous beginning, the intervention 
in history of a reparative and saving power, inaugu- 
rating a new and final historical development. No, 
there must be nothing less than a perpetual miracle ; 
everything would be lost if the concurrence of natural 
activity, of patient labour, were for a moment admitted, 
if the conditions of a slowly progressive development 
were in any degree recognised. The religion of the 
Spirit is not a new sun which has arisen on the 
horizon of humanity, and which is to run its regular 
course after the primary miracle of its appearance ; 
it is to retain ever the brilliance of the lightning; 
it is to be one long flashing storm, rather than the 
.quiet shining of the sun. The divine does not har- 
monise with the human element ; it always descends 
upon it as on its prey, overcoming and subverting 
it. This tendency has often been manifested in the 
history of Christianity, under various names, but it 
is well deserving of study in its earliest form, which 
was also the most remarkable, because it shared in 
the grandeur of a heroic age. 

In substance, Montanism was only a strong re- 
action against established order, which has ever a 



I06 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

tendency to fall into routine ; it partook of the fanatic 
temperament of the race which fostered it, and of the 
passionate genius of its most illustrious representative. 
It might justly, however, make its boast in the most 
glorious past of Christianity. In fact, the Church 
of Jerusalem, immediately after the feast of Pentecost, 
does present the character of the purely supernatural 
triumphing over all the conditions of common life. 
She is awaiting the solemn midnight cry, which shall 
announce the return of the mystic Bridegroom : she 
believes herself to be on the threshold of the King's 
palace, in which the eternal marriage shall be con- 
summated ; with loins girt about, and lamps burning, 
her members seem no longer conscious of any 
ties of earth ; all private ownership of property is 
well-nigh merged in the first fervour of the new 
charity. The Church is in a state of ecstasy, with 
eyes lifted to heaven, whence the fiery tongues of 
the Spirit came down upon her. Miracles are mul- 
tiplied in her midst; the divine thoughts, like the 
new wine which breaks the imprisoning vessel, cannot 
be contained within the ordinary forms of speech. 
This strange and sublime condition must of necessity 
be transitory ; even in the age of the Apostles, the 
stream which had burst from its source, at first in 
such impetuous floods, hollowed out for itself a quiet 
channel and began to flow between determined bounds. 
Later in the first century, both ecstasy and miracles 
diminished ; calm and thoughtful teaching took the 
place of those burning effusions of the gift of pro- 
phecy ; ecclesiastical organisation began to develop 
itself; and the Divine Spirit transformed and utilised, 



BOOK I. — MONTANISM. IO7 

instead of suppressing human activity. In the next 
century, the commingling of the natural and super- 
natural element was still more apparent. Supernatural 
gifts, properly so called, do not wholly disappear ; the 
Fathers of that age still speak of gifts of miracle and 
prophecy, but these are the exceptions. The divine 
operation, always supernatural in its origin, blends 
more and more with human action, leaving, however, 
full play to the free agency of man, and consequently 
often hindered, fettered, and even stifled by it. The 
Church, realising that it is to rear something more 
than the structure of a day, seeks durability and 
extension ; like every other society destined to live, 
it begins to organise. The possible acquires more 
importance in its eyes than the ideal ; it is led on 
to make concessions, compromises, changes in the 
primitive type. Nothing can be more legitimate than 
a reaction against these alterations, if only it be regu- 
lated by the established laws of history, and carried 
out by patient effort ; not by recourse to prodigy and 
ecstasy, which are no longer the religious conditions 
of the time. The error of Montanism consists then, 
not in its protest against the enervation of holiness 
and Christian liberty in the Church, but in the ex- 
aggeration of the reaction, and in the refusal to recog- 
nise any other type of Christianity than that of the 
upper chamber of Jerusalem. It sought to perpetuate 
and resuscitate that which was only transitory, and 
mistook the chimerical and the impossible for the ideal. 
The early history of Montanism is obscure.* It is 

* The principal works to be consulted on Montanism are : ist, 
" Philosophoumena," viii. 19. 2nd, Epiphanius, "Contra Hseres.," 



I08 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

certain that it took its rise about the middle of the 
second century in Phrygia, in the midst of a people 
naturally fanatical and credulous. Its founder, Mon- 
tanus, is known to us only by vague reports, and by 
the calumnies of his adversaries.* He appears to 
have taught the fundamental doctrine of the sect on 
the development of revelation by the Paraclete. 
Two women, his compatriots, Maximilla and Priscilla, 
were his acolytes; they were regarded as the chosen 
organs of the Holy Spirit. t Eusebius mentions 
among his adherents in Asia Minor, Theodotus, 
Alcibiades, Themison, and Proculus, who took an 
important part in the controversies respecting the 
determination of Easter.]: It is probable that the sect 
assumed, even at this date, an attitude of opposition 
to the episcopacy, if we may judge by the keen- 
ness of the polemics used against it by some of 
the Bishops of Asia Minor. Claudius Apollinaris, 
Bishop of Hierapolis,§ and Miltiades, the author of a 

xlviii. 3rd, Eusebius, "H. E." v. 16-20. 4th, Tertullian's Mon- 
tanist treatises. Among modern writers, beside the historians of 
doctrine that have been already quoted, we place foremost Ritschl's 
admirable chapter on Montanism ("Altcat. Kirche," p. 462 et 
seq.) See also Baur, " Der. Christ, der drei ersten Jahrhund.," 
p. 264 et seq. 

-'' Eusebius mentions these calumnies, ascribing them to an 
ecclesiastical writer of unknown name. ("H. E.," v. 16.) 

t Tertullian names Montanus (" De jejuniis," i.). He mentions 
with him also the two Phrygian prophetesses : " Prophetias Mon- 
tani, Prisc^e, Maximillse." (" Adv. Prax.," i.) See also the " Philoso- 
phoumena :" "Erfpoi TrpoXrjcjyQsvTiQ virb yvvaiKiov riTrdTrjvrai, TIpi7KiXXr]g 
TivoQ /cat Ma^ifxiXkriQ KaXov/xeviov, kv ravTaig to TrapciKkriTOV Trvevfia 
Ktx(^pr}Ksvai XkyovTiQ. (" Phil.," viii. 19.) 

I Eusebius, " H. E.," v. 16, 18. Tertulhan speaks in high terms 
of praise of Proculus : " Proculus noster, virginis senectae et chris- 
tianse eloquentiae dignitas." (" Adv. Valent.," 5.) 

§ Ibid., iv. 27. 



( 



BOOK I. — MONTANISM. IO9 

book against ecstatic prophecy,* Serapion, Bishop of 
Antioch,t and subsequently Clement of Alexandria, 
took part in this discussion.]: At Rome Montanism 
found well-prepared soil in a Church which had 
produced such a man as Hermas. The book of the 
" Pastor" is entirely filled with visions, inculcating 
ascetic rigour ; it abounds in protests against the 
enervation of piety, and it opposes vehemently the 
aggressions of the clergy. It speaks also of the 
coming end of the world, but it does not raise the 
vision to the height of a dogmatic statement ; it 
stops short at the point where the shade would tone 
into a decided colour. It is only a tendency, not an 
organised party. This tendency, however, was singu- 
larly favourable to the propagation of Montanism. It 
is not surprising then that Montanism should have 
found large development in Rome, and even secured 
the momentary adherence of a Bishop, who can be no 
other than Eleutherus (170-185). § 

It was openly condemned subsequently, on the 
denunciation of Praxeas, who came from Asia Minor. 
The decided conflict only commenced after the Bishop 
of Rome had advanced his claim to pardon the gravest 

* "Adv. Valent," v. 17. f Ibid., v. 17. 

I Clement of Alexandria, "Strom.," iv. 13, 95 ; vi. 8, 66. 

§ " Idem Praxasas tunc episcopum romanum coegit litteras pacis 
jam emissas revocare." (Tertull. "Adv. Prax.," i.) This bishop is, 
in all probability, Eleutherus, for Victor, who distinguished himself 
by his intolerance towards the Asiatics on the subject of the cele- 
bration of Easter, would not have been likely to show even a 
momentary indulgence towards a sect altogether opposed to the 
practice he enjoined. Soter (i 57-161) and Anicetus (161-170) both 
lived at a time too early in the history of Montanism to allow the 
supposition that during their episcopate there could have arisen 
a quarrel needing to be thus appeased. 



no THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

sins, such as adultery.* At Lyons, Montanism had 
found access through the relations subsisting between 
that city and the Christians of Asia Minor, but the 
character of the sect was not definitely known there. 
Irenseus was sent to the capital of the empire as the 
bearer of a letter asking for explanations and informa- 
tion. t The attitude assumed by him towards Mon- 
tanism, the keen polemics in which he engaged to 
oppose it, show plainly what was the nature of the 
reply from Rome.J 

Montanism gathered the largest number of adherents 
in proconsular Africa. We see from the "Acts of 
the Martyrdom " of Felicitas and Perpetua, that it 
had attracted to itself some of the noblest confessors 
of the faith. § Tertullian, in embracing it, gave it all 
the prestige and power of his marvellous eloquence. 
The success of Montanism was as brief as it was 
brilliant. The credit enjoyed by the great apologist 
of Carthage with Cyprian, the apostle of rule and 
authority, is sufficient evidence that, after his death, 
the great schismatic ceased to create alarm, and that 
his high qualities received the estimation they deserved. 

Let us now consider the Montanist doctrine in itself. 
It draws its primary inspiration from the lively con- 
viction of the approaching end of all things. Mon- 
tanism is not content with insisting upon the duty of 
the Christians to be perpetually looking for the glorious 

'■' The reference is, no doubt, to the facts with which Zephyrinus 
was reproached by Hippolytus. (" Phil.," Bk. ix.) "Audio edictum 
esse propositum et quidem peremptorium. Pontifex scihcet maxi- 
mus, episcopus episcoporum edicit : Ego et mcechise et fornicationis 
delicta poenitentia functis demitto." (Tertulhan, " De pudic," i.) 

f Eusebius, v. 3. | Ibid,, v. 20. § " Acta Perpetuas et Felicit." 



BOOK I. — MONTANISM. Ill 

return of Christ. It fixes a date beyond which it does 
not admit the possibility of the continuance of human 
history. ''After me," exclaims one of its prophet- 
esses, "there will be no more prophets."* Tertullian 
paints, in fiery colours, the great scenes of the last 
judgment, which he is awaiting from hour to hour. 
His excited imagination delights in representing to 
itself the millennium in the most gorgeous hues. 
" We are expecting our promised reign upon earth ; 
before we are transported to the skies our condition 
will be made entirely new. After the resurrection we 
shall live for a thousand years in the city built by the 
hand of God, which is that heavenly Jerusalem called 
by the apostle — our mother.t There the saints will 
dwell, enriched with all spiritual treasures, in com- 
pensation for those which we have contemned or sacri- 
ficed in this present life." 

The saints will be raised each in his own order, an 
order determined by merit. The conflagration of the 
world, and the last judgment, will be the final act of 
the drama. The Asiatic Montanists went so far as to 
point out the spot on which the heavenly Jerusalem 
would come down; they fi.xed on Pepuza in Phrygia.J 

Montanism pretends to have received special reve- 
lations as to the end of the world. These revelations 
have been made to it alone ; its founders received 
them directly from the Holy Spirit or the Paraclete. 
If it be objected that the Church at large has had 

* Mer' eixk Trpo^rjrig ovksti earai, aXXd avvTiXna eorai. (Epiphanius, 
" H^res.," xlviii. 2.) 

\ "Confitemur in terra nobis regnum repromissum, in mille 
annos, in civitate divini operis Hierusalem de coelo delata." 
(Tertullian, " C. Marc," iii. 24.) j Epiphanius, " Hceres.," 48. 



112 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

no part in them, and therefore cannot recognise 
them, Montanism replies by claiming for itself a 
position above the organisation and regular powers of 
the Church, and asserting, as its own monopoly, the 
continuity of revelation. Thus the doctrine of the 
Paraclete is developed. Anterior revelations are not 
set aside ; they are regarded as initiatory steps. The 
Old Testament retains its claims, but the New Testa- 
ment suffers depreciation, inasmuch as it is no longer 
the final utterance of the Divine teaching. It has 
not brought revelation to perfection ; it has made, 
especially in the teaching of the apostles, more than 
one concession to human weakness, and, like Moses, 
it has allowed certain practices because of the hard- 
ness of men's hearts. " The Lord," says Tertullian, 
*'has sent the Paraclete, because human weakness 
was not capable of receiving the truth all at once ; it 
was necessary that the discipline should be regulated 
and progressively ordered, until it was carried to 
perfection by the Holy Spirit."* Paul gave certain 
instructions rather by permission than in the name of 
God ; he tolerated marriage because of the weakness 
of the flesh, in the same manner as Moses permitted 
divorce. " If Christ has abolished that which Moses 
had commanded, why should not the Paraclete forbid 
that which Paul allows ?"t 

In fine, the Holy Spirit is rather a restorer than an 
innovator.! Was not the new development of the reve- 

'■' Tertullian, " De virg. veland.," i. 

f " Si Christus abstulit quod Moyses praecepit, cur non et Para- 
cletus abstulerit, quod Paulus indulsit ?" (" De monogam.," i. 4.) 

I " Ut Paracletum restitutorem potius sentias disciplinse quam 
institutorem." (Ibid., i. 4.) 



BOOK I. — MONTANISM. II3 

lations given foreseen and declared by Jesus Christ? 
The final and glorious economy of the Paraclete may in- 
deed have commenced at Pentecost, but it only reached 
its culminating point with the appearance of Mon- 
tanus and the prophetesses of Phrygia ; none can tell 
where its developments may end. It was impossible to 
make a more serious assault than this upon apostolic 
Christianity. 

When revelation is regarded, not as a doctrine or a 
law, but as a fact — the fact of redemption — the apostolic 
testimony retains its supreme, unique, incomparable 
value. The fact cannot be changed ; it is what it is, 
and the original witnesses chosen by God to preserve 
its memory, endowed with the gifts necessary for so 
grand a mission, cannot be either replaced or sur- 
passed. Revelation must then be complete when re- 
demption is accomplished. But it is otherwise when 
revelation is considered essentially as a doctrine or 
law; then the protocol remains open as it were, and 
progress is always possible. This was the ground 
taken by Montanism, and most of its errors and ex- 
aggerations arise out of this false conception of revela- 
tion. By attributing to the Paraclete the power of 
indefinitely adding to revelation, by placing still con- 
tinuous revelation above that which was written, 
Montanism gave scope for all that was visionary, for 
all the hallucinations of diseased minds. When the 
exercise of prophecy in the Church ceased to consist 
simply in the prediction of a particular event, or in 
the vindication of an old truth with new power ; when 
in addition to this it implied the possibility of modi- 
fying or adding to that truth, it ceased to offer anything 

9 



114 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

definite, any firm and immovable foundation, any rock 
on which to build. Religion lost the definitive character 
w^hich belongs to that v^hich is absolute. The danger 
w^as so much the greater, since the inspiration w^hich 
thus had power to change everything was exempted 
from the restraint of all the rules of reason, as well as 
from the authority of the Holy Scriptures. It was 
admitted to be a sort of ecstasy, and its great merit, 
according to the sect, consisted in its bringing man 
into a state of complete passivity. " Ecstasy seized the 
inspired man ; this is the power of the Holy Spirit 
which produces prophecy."* It is a sort of God-sent 
madness, which constitutes the spiritual faculty called 
by us, prophecy. The soul is no longer self-possessed 
when it prophesies ; it is in a state of delirium ; a power 
not its own masters it.t Dreams and visions occupy 
the principal place in the inspiration of the Montanists. 
Inspiration is only the harp which vibrates as it is 
touched by the player's finger. | "Man sleeps; I 
alone am walking," says the Paraclete. § In such a 
conception of inspiration, flexible natures, susceptible 
of keen and rapid impressions, were the chosen organs 
of revelation. Thus woman occupied the place of 
honour in Montanism. The prophetess Priscilla as- 
serted that Jesus Christ had appeared to her in a 
feminine garb.|l Perpetua had an ecstatic vision of 
the same kind. " There is among us," says Tertullian, 
*' a sister who has the gift of revelations. On the 
Sabbath, in the assembly, she is seized with ecstasy, 

* " Extasis, Sancti Spiritus vis operatrix prophetia2." (Tertullian, 
"De anima/' II.) f In spiritu patitur. (Ibid., 9.) 

:j: "AvOpojTTog ojaei Xvpa. (Epiphanius, "Hseres.," xlviii. 4.) 

§ Ibid. II Ibid., xlix. i. 



BOOK I. — MONTANISM. II5 

and holds converse with the angels, and often with the 
Lord Himself. She sometimes reads hearts and tells 
the needed remedies to those who ask her."* 

The Montanist Pythoness was quite as liable to be 
wrought upon by extreme nervous and spiritual excite- 
ment, as the priestess of Apollo, divinely intoxicated 
on her Delphic tripod. Ambiguous and lying oracles 
could thus be substituted for the clear and exact pre- 
scriptions of the sacred books. It is obvious that 
the whole of Christianity was imperilled by this doc- 
trine of the Paraclete. This was the fundamental 
heresy of Montanism, and infinitely more serious than 
the particular errors into which it might be led. 

Those errors, as we have already observed, do not 
relate so much to doctrine as discipline, although the 
sect may be fairly charged with changing the Gospel, 
or at least falsifying its spirit, by its purely legal 
conception of the new religion. The view which the 
Montanists took of divine inspiration led them not to 
recognise the demands of the ecclesiastical order. 
They were undoubtedly right in their resistance to 
the encroachments of the hierarchy, and to the re- 
laxation of discipline. But they went too far on this 
point, as on every other — insisting upon a Church of 
saints and perfect men, as if the secrets of the heart 
could ever be judged of in a human society, which is 
constrained to conduct itself with that which is ex- 
ternal. " The Church," said Tertullian, " is not con- 
stituted by the number of bishops ; it is the Holy 
Spirit in the spiritual ma^."t 

* Tertullian, " De anima," 9. 

f " Ecclesia Spiritus per spiritalem hominem, non Ecclesia Hu- 
merus episcoporum." (Tertullian, "De pudicit," 21.) 

9 * 



Il6 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

This declaration would be correct if it applied to 
the invisible Church, which is composed of all true 
Christians, and of all that is truly Christian in them. 
But it becomes false and dangerous when applied to 
any one visible Church, which cannot be the adequate 
expression of the invisible, in which the tares grow 
with the good wheat, and their separation is impossible. 
The evil is not excluded by making a profession of 
the faith the personal condition of membership ; there 
is no guarantee that this profession will be in all 
cases sincere, and even were it so, there is no re- 
ligious community in which it is not incomplete. It 
follows that no one such community can claim to be 
itself, to the exclusion of all others, the Temple of 
the Holy Ghost ; else it becomes at once an exclusive 
sect, like the Montanists, who called themselves the 
perfect, the spiritual men, speaking scornfully of 
all other Christians as carnal. Their conception of 
inspiration, as never final and complete, moreover, 
rendered any fixed order impossible, and destroyed 
ecclesiastical authority. All the elements of the faith 
were daily liable to change. It was impossible to 
divine what strange answers to spiritual questions 
might fall from heaven. 

The Montanist revelations related especially to 
questions of discipline and morals. This imparted to 
the system the legal character of which we have 
already spoken. The distinction between the two 
covenants was lost sight of. '' The Church," says 
TertuUian, "blends the law* and the prophets with 
the Gospels and the writings of the apostles."* The 

* "Ecclesia legem et prophetas cum evangelicis et apostolicis 
scriptis miscet." (Tertullian, " De prescript.," 36.) 



BOOK I. — MONTANISM. II7 

Gospel was a code, no less than Mosaism, especially 
with the amphfications given to it by the Paraclete. 
The law of liberty is replaced by precepts of the 
minutest detail. All that was not permissible was laid 
under a stern interdict ;* and thus vanished that noble 
Christian liberty, which enlarges the domain of the 
moral principle instead of narrowing it, and takes 
possession of the entire life, to bring it all under one 
direction, and to animate it with the inspiration of love 
as with the breath of life. Montanism tended to a 
system of growing severity, and it laid special stress 
upon three points. First, it exalted martyrdom with 
solemn fervour. Martyrdom satisfied its favourite 
aspirations by breaking all the bonds of earth, tramp- 
ling under foot the present life, and lifting the eager 
soul at once into the heavenly sphere, and to a share 
in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The Church assuredly 
gave to martyrdom no niggard honour, but Montanism 
went further, and severely condemned every measure 
of prudence in times of proscription. The Treatise of 
Tertullian on " Flight and Persecution," expresses 
perfectly the ideas of the sect. *' The Spirit," he says, 
*' urges us all to martyrdom, not to flight. "t The 
Montanists gloried in the great number of confessors 
who had come forth from their ranks. | 

The same severity characterises their practice of 
fasting. Christians are enjoined to fast until the 
evening on the " dies stationum," Wednesday and 
Friday. During two weeks of each year they are to 

-''^ " Imo prohibetur quod non ultro est permissum." (Tertullian, 
" De corona milit," 2.) 

f " Spiritus omnes p^ene ad martyrium exhortatur, non ad fugam." 
Tertullian, " De fug. in persecut," 9.) | Eusebius, " H. E.," v. 16. 



Il8 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

abstain from meat, wine, fruits, and also from the baths 
so highly esteemed by the ancients. This time of self- 
mortification is called Xerophagiai, Tertullian has 
written an entire treatise in defence of fasting. The 
objections brought against the sect on this point show 
clearly the exaggerated legalism by which it was 
estranged from the true Christian tradition. The law 
and the prophets, it was said to the Montanists, were 
until John ; fasting thenceforward should be a volun- 
tary, not an enjoined act. The apostles themselves 
observed it, without laying it as a yoke upon any : we 
must not return to legal prescriptions. The prophets 
showed great contempt for all that is merely outward 
observance.* Tertullian replies that nothing is more 
adapted to give large licence to the flesh, than the 
reducing of the law to the great commandment of love. 
He maintains the necessity of fasting — first, on the 
ground that self-indulgence led to the fall. '* It is 
necessary," he says, "that man should give satisfac- 
tion to God with the same element by which he 
offended, and that he should deny himself food, which 
caused his fall."t That fasting is agreeable to God is 
proved by the words full of tenderness addressed to' 
Elijah, when he was fasting in the desert of Horeb, 
especially as compared with the severe tone of the call 
to Adam, when he had been eating the forbidden fruit. 
Fasting facilitates holy visions, as is proved by sacred 
history from Daniel to Peter, and it prepares for 
martyrdom ; while the neglect of such abstinence leads 

-i" Tertullian, " De jejuniis," 2. 

f " Ut homo per eamdem materiam causae satis Deo faciat, per 
quam offenderat." (Ibid., 3.) 



BOOK I. — MONTANISM. Iig 

to apostacy, by fostering the love for material plea- 
sures. To the objections drawn from Holy Scripture, 
Tertullian replies by the revelations of the Paraclete, 
which legitimately give expansion to its application. 
In this treatise he recognises no distinction between 
the Old and New Testament, as is indeed natural from 
his strictly legal standpoint.* Let the athletes who 
fight with the wild beasts, feed and grow fat, if they 
will ; but such is not the calling of the Christian, 
who is to wrestle, not against flesh and blood, but 
against the powers of the air. The gate of Heaven 
is narrow ; an attenuated body will enter more easily 
than one puffed up with fleshly indulgence. t 

Montanism, like all ascetic doctrines, enters its 
strongest protest against the union of the sexes. 
It seems to object only to second marriages, which it 
imperatively forbids, but in fact it deprecates and 
denounces marriage altogether, and urges absolute 
continence. Tertullian, in his treatise on '' Mono- 
gamy," contents himself with prohibiting second 
marriages, taking his stand on Scripture, when he can 
make it sustain his view, appealing to the higher power 
of the Paraclete when he has to deal with the exact 
texts of St. Paul. The Apostle, according to him, 
gave sanction to second marriages, but with a marked 
tone of antipathy. The Paraclete, however, in his 
new revelation, always acts in conformity with Jesus 
Christ and His promises. " We acknowledge," said 
Tertullian, *' only one marriage, as we acknowledge 

* Tertullian, " De jejuniis," c. 6, 7, 8. 

f " Facilius, si forte per angustam salutis januam introibit caro 
exilior." (Ibid., 17.) 



120 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

only one God.* Jesus Christ has had only one bride, 
which is the Church. By His example, and by the 
explicit command revealed by the Paraclete, He has 
restored the true nature ; for monogamy dates from 
Eden."f The priests were to have only one wife. 
Now, under the new economy, every Christian is a 
priest of Christ, No difference should be made, in a 
moral point of view, between the clergy and the 
laity, for the former are taken from among Christian 
people.! Beside, how can marriage, which makes of 
the man and woman one flesh, be renewed. Is such 
an assimilation capable of repetition ? Beside, the 
bonds between husband and wife continue in death ; § 
they have only become more sacred by becoming more 
spiritual. Tertullian goes even further in his treatise, 
his " Exhortation to Chastity." He avows the prin- 
ciples of false asceticism. He recognises a morality 
of perfection which rises above the ordinary standard. 
Permanent virginity is its highest point ; abstinence 
from the sexual relations in marriage is akin to it in 
virtue. 11 Let monogamy, at least, be the Christian 
rule, and a chaste widowhood be faithfully maintained. 
The various degrees of virtue correspond to the dif- 
ferent attitudes of the mind of God Himself, the one 
of tolerance, the other of preference. U Thus we are 

'<" "Unum matrimonium novimus, sicut unum Deum." ("De 
monogam.," i.) 

f " In Christo omnia revocantur ad initium." (" De mono- 
gam.," 5.) I Ibid., 12. 

§ "Ergo hoc magis ei juncta est, cum quo habet apud Deum 
causam." (Ibid., 10.) || Tertullian, " De exhortat. castitatis," i. 

H " Etsi quaedam videntur voluntatem Dei sapere, dum a Deo 
permittantur, non statim omne quod permittitur, ex mera et tota 
voluntate procedit ejus qui permittit." ( Ibid., 3.) 



BOOK I.— MONTANISM. 121 

brought to the very doctrine of the Romish counsels 
of the Gospel perfection — the natural issue of every 
legal tendency which abandons the unity of the 
moral principle. TertuUian does not hesitate to com- 
pare the conjugal union to adultery, forgetting his 
own beautiful words about the perpetuity of marriage 
after death. The union of the sexes has always for 
its cause an impulse of lust. " Thus, then," he sug- 
gests as an objection urged, '*you set a brand even on 
first marriages." " And rightly," he replies, " since 
they consist in the same act as adultery." Thus it 
is good for a man not to touch a woman ; virginity is 
the highest holiness, since it is furthest removed from 
adultery."* Thus we see Montanism reaching, by a 
different path, the very same extravagant asceticism 
advocated by the Gnostics, and falling into the same 
dualism, at least in a moral point of view. 

Legalism of necessity develops into casualty, for 
as no place is to be left to liberty, prescriptions must 
be multiplied. The treatises of TertuUian on " The 
Philosopher's Mantle," on '' The Veil of the Virgin," 
and on the " Crown of the Soldier," give sufficient 
evidence of this tendency. He urges that the virgin 
be veiled like the married woman, so as not to kindle 
the flame of passion. " I entreat thee, O woman, be 
thou mother, daughter, or virgin, veil thy head : as 
mother, veil it for the sake of thy son; as sister, for 
thy brother ; as daughter, for thy father. For thou 
dost imperil men of every age. Put on the armour 
of modesty; encircle thee with a rampart of chastity. 

"^^ "Ideo virginis principalis sanctitas, quia caret stupri affini- 
tate." (" De exhortat. castitatis," 9.) 



122 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Set a guard over thine own eyes and over those 
of others. Art thou not married to Christ ?"* If the 
Christian wears the mantle at all, it is to be the 
severe garb of the censor who denounces the luxury 
of the world. " Glory in thy mantle, for since 
thou hast become a Christian, thou hast been initiated 
into the best of all philosophies. "t The soldier may 
not accept the military crown, under pain of tampering 
with idolatry; the military service is altogether con- 
demned by Tertullian, as incompatible with the 
Christian calling. 

The perversion of the doctrine of redemption, which 
is the source of all this legalism, casuistry, and extreme 
asceticism, is especially notable in the arbitrary dis- 
tinction made by Montanism between various kinds 
of sins. In the same manner as it recognises two 
orders of perfection, and thus does violence to the 
true idea of good, so does it tamper with the idea of 
evil. The adherents of the sect made a difference 
between sins venial and mortal, and denied that the 
Church had power to pardon the latter. They placed 
adultery and apostacy at the head of this black cata- 
logue. They did not deny that God could pardon 
them directly, or through the medium of an exceptional 
revelation ; but on this side the grave no restoration 
was possible for those who had been guilty of such 
sins, even though they gave the strongest pledges of 
their repentance. This stern sentence is carried by 
Tertullian to its furthest issues. His treatise on 

* " Nupsisti enim Christo." (" De virg. veland.," i6,) 
f " Gaude pallium et exsulta, melior jam te philosophia dignata 
est, ex quo Christiamim vestire coepisti." (" De pallio," 6.) 



BOOK I. — MONTx\NISM. I23 

" Modest}^," called forth by the decree of the Bishop 
of Rome, who had assumed the right to pardon the 
gravest sins, expresses the Montanist theory with 
perfect clearness. He does not dwell for an instant 
on the very real difficulty of obtaining suffi-cient proof 
of true repentance after such grievous falls ; he speaks 
only of the comparative gravity of different sins. 
"Some," he says, " are pardonable ; others, on the con- 
trary, are beyond remission ; some merit punishment, 
others deserve damnation. From this difference in 
the offences comes the difference in the penitence, 
which varies according as it is exercised on account 
of a pardonable or unpardonable sin."* Nothing can 
be more arbitrary than such a distinction ; sin is no 
doubt miore or less heinous in proportion to its wilful- 
ness and determinateness. But every violation of the 
law of God, small or great, demands alike the full 
mercy of God. The Church is the depository of the 
mercy of grace and pardon. What right has it to 
exclude from its bosom one class of sinners more than 
another, when once it has received all the assurance 
possible of an earnest repentance ? It is not reason- 
able to grant an equal pardon for all sins in the Divine 
order, and to decree irrevocable exclusions from micrcy 
in the order of the Church. Such exclusions can only 
be intended to compel the sinner to make expiation 
upon earth for the gravest offences. It follows then 
that the work of redemption is insufficient, and that, 
in addition to repentance, a certain satisfaction is 

* " Causas poenitentiae delicta condicimus ; hasc dividimus in 
duos exitus, alia erunt remissibilia, alia irremissibilia." (" De 
pudic," 2.) 



124 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

demanded of the sinner. We here reach the root of 
the error of Montanism, from which grows its legaHsm 
and its asceticism. We shall see how the Church, 
which repudiated the sect as heretical, has itself fallen 
under the influence of this capital mistake, and has 
ultimately adopted, with slight modifications, several 
of its favourite doctrines. It is to Montanism that it 
owes the idea of the infallibility of its Councils, which 
attempt in the same way to add to revelation. From 
the same source, too, it has derived its '' counsels of 
perfection," and the distinction between venial and 
mortal sins. Let us, nevertheless, acknowledge that 
Montanism left also, as a heritage to the Church, its 
noble ecclesiastical liberalism, and its strong vindica- 
tion of the priesthood of all Christians. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FIRST UNITARIANS. 

MoNTANiSM was no pioneer in theology ; its doctrine 
of the Trinity has no more precision than had the 
orthodoxy of the age on this most dark and difficult 
point. Its general tendency, however, is to strengthen 
the Trinitarian position. The importance which it 
attaches to the mission of the Paraclete, or of the 
Holy Spirit, in the Christian economy, evidently im- 
plies the distinction of the Divine persons. It is easy 
therefore to understand how the adversaries of Mon- 
tanism were led, in their reactionary movement against 
it, to multiply their attacks on Trinitarian ideas, and 
to constitute themselves the fervent apostles of the 
unity of God. In fact, let it once be established that 
there is no distinction of persons in the Godhead, and 
it could no longer be possible to attribute to the 
Paraclete the powers with which He was accredited by 
Montanism. Under the influence of this new school 
extraordinary inspirations and new revelations ceased. 
A state of quiescence succeeded to the tumultuous 
excitement which, throughout, the prophets and pro- 
phetesses fostered as the normal condition of the 
Church's life. This gain, however, was dearly bought 
at the cost of the fundamental principle of Christian 



126 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

theology — that living conception of the Deity, which 
neither removes Him to the height of a frozen abstrac- 
tion, nor lowers, by confounding Him with His own 
creation; and which enables us to recognise the eternal 
realisation of love before the world was in the holy 
union of the Father and the Son. Doubtless clouds 
and darkness gather around this lofty conception, as 
around all that is truly sublime and exalted; but when 
the mind descends to lower ground, it finds only the 
cold divinity of deism, which is nothing more than an 
idea, or the diffused divinity of pantheism, which is 
only another name for the world. For the most part, 
the former of these two erroneous conceptions merges 
into the latter, finding it impossible to sustain itself 
in the void created by pure deism. 

Such is in fact the process of transmutation which 
we have traced in Ebionitism, which, starting from 
abstract Monotheism, loses itself at last in the gnostic 
pantheism of the " Clementines." There must indeed 
be a logical necessity simply irresistible in this trans- 
formation of doctrine, since we find Unitarianism 
passing through the same phases, under the most 
various conditions, whether originating in the Church 
itself, or produced by the narrow teachings of the 
synagogue. It is an interesting study to observe how 
directly this tendency ran counter to the Christian 
conscience, since in an age when ecclesiastical authority 
was far more lax in its constitution than after Nicaea, 
and when the theological creed was in many points 
still unformed, Christianity did not hesitate to give 
emphatic repudiation to systems which assailed the 
Divinity of Christ. 



BOOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. 127 

§ I. The First School of Unitarians.^ 

At the starting-point of the Unitarian movement we 
find a sect called the Alogians, whose opinions cannot 
be ascertained with exactness on any point except that 
which gives it its name. The Alogians, or deniers of 
the Word, rejected the central doctrines of the writings 
of St. John,t and repudiated his Gospel on purely 
theoretic grounds, in the name of a strictly internal 
and arbitrary criticism, which altogether ignored 
history. Sworn enemies to Montanism, as Irenaeus 
tells us, they thought they discovered in the book of 
the Revelation, and in the fourth Gospel, a confirmation 
of the tendency to which they were so determinately 
opposed. " Not willing," says Irenaeus, "to recognise 
the gift of the Holy Spirit, shed forth upon mankind 
according to the good pleasure of the Father, they 
repudiate the Gospel of John, in which the Lord 
promises the Paraclete, and they deny in the same 
manner the spirit of prophecy."! The Alogians en- 
deavoured to place the fourth Gospel in contradiction 
with the synoptics. The prologue of John seemed 
to them incompatible with the commencement of the 
other three Gospels. They noted the differences in 

* The reader may consult with profit on this subject the portion 
of Dorner's book which refers to it : " Lehre von der Person 
Christi," pp. 497-562, 698 ; Baur," Christhsche Lehre der Dreieinig- 
keit," p. 253 and foil. ; " Das Christenth. der drei erst. Jahrhund.," 
p. 308 and foil. I need not enumerate the general works on the 
history of doctrine, nor the authorities to which I refer in loco. 
See also "I'Histoire du dogme de la divinity de Jdsus-Christ," by 
Albert Reville. Paris, 1869. 

f 'Ettei ovv tov \o-yov ov dkxovrai rbv irapa 'luidvvov KiKrjpvyjxkvov 
"Kkoyoi KknO-haovrai. (Epiph., " Hasres.," li.) | Irenasus, " Hccres.," iii. 



128 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

chronology, specially in the time assigned to the 
ministry of Jesus Christ, which, according to their view 
of the first three Gospels, could have included only one 
Passover feast. For the rest, they lent their own 
confirmation to the antiquity of the document which 
they sought to repudiate, for they fixed upon Cerinthus 
as its author. They got rid of the book of the 
Apocalypse in a more summary manner, by asking 
what end was answered by this revelation of super- 
terrestrial things.* The Alogians were narrow sec- 
taries, who were governed by the spirit of system, 
and forced facts into compliance with their precon- 
ceived ideas. They pursued the dangerous method 
in theological controversies, which consists in taking 
on every point a position counter to that of their 
opponents; not perceiving that in this way they really 
placed themselves in subjection to them, and sur- 
rendered their own freedom of conviction by abandon- 
ing an unbiassed investigation of the question at issue. 
They do not appear to have constructed a system, 
properly so-called. Their attachment to the synoptics 
doubtless prevented them from rejecting the miraculous 
conception of Jesus. They admitted His close union 
with the Deity, while they emphatically denied the 
distinction of the Divine persons. 

The Unitarian doctrine took a more definite form 
with the two Theodotuses. The first was a currier 
from Bysance, who came to Rome about the close of 
the second century ; the second was a money-changer 
in the same city. Among their disciples may be 
named Asclepiades, Hermophiles, and Apollonides.t 
* Epiphanius, " Haeres.," li. i Eusebius, " H. E." v. 28. 



BdOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. 129 

Men of hard and logical mind, geometricians and 
grammarians by taste, they carried into the greatest 
problems of Christian metaphysics the methods of 
their rigorous dialectics, and, under pretext of unity, 
sacrificed the complex elements of the problems they 
treated.* While admitting the supernatural birth of 
Jesus,t they rejected the incarnation properly so-called. 
They gave their own interpretation to the declaration 
of the angel to Mary : " The power of the highest 
shall overshadow thee." It implied, in their view, 
simply a moral union between the divinity and 
humanity in the person of Jesus, else it would have 
been said to Mary that the Holy Spirit should be 
born of her. They supported their opinion further 
by the Old Testament prophecies, which declared that 
Messiah should be born of a woman, and laid great 
stress on the declarations of the Gospel concerning 
the human nature of Christ. | They acknowledged no 
difference between Him and other men, except that of 
moral superiority.! Starting from such a basis, re- 
demption could find no place in their system. Jesus 
had come simply to give in His own person and in His 
life an exceptional manifestation of the Divine prin- 
ciple, wakening into consciousness the higher element 
lying dormant within us. The first Theodotus was 

* KaTa\nr6vT(Q rag ayiag rov 6eov ypa<pdg, yeiofiiTpiav kiriTTjSEVOvmv. 

(Eusebius, " H. E.," v. 28.) 

f Epiphanius wrongly asserts that they deny the miraculous 
conception of Jesus. (" Hasres.," liv.) | Epiphanius, " Haeres.,'^ liv. 

§ "Theodotus haereticus Bysantius doctrinam introduxit, qua 
Christum hominem tantummodo diceret, deum autem ilium negaret, 
ex spiritu quidem sancto natum ex virgine, sed hominem solitarium 
atque nudum, nulla alia prae caeteris nisi sola justitiae auctoritate." 
(Tertullian, " De prescript.," c. 53.) 

10 



130 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

condemned by Bishop Victor, although he had suc- 
ceeded in winning to his doctrine a holy confessor 
named Natalis — a man more devout than enlightened. 
This convert did not persist in his error, and -withdrew 
his support from the sect after a vision, which left 
an ineffaceable impression of terror on his feeble 
mind. Theodoret accuses him of having sold himself 
to the heretics for money.* But this sort of imputa- 
tion on the false teachers must be received with much 
caution, as coming from adversaries eager to believe 
anything that could blacken the character of those 
they hated. 

The Fathers mention a Unitarian sect, which sup- 
posed the existence of a mysterious link between Jesus 
and the head of the angelic hosts, who is designated 
by the name Melchisedec. The second Theodotus 
appears to have embraced this opinion, which is 
evidently of Gnostic origin, and betrays the influence 
of mystic Ebionitism upon the Unitarianism of the 
west.t Artemon adhered to the purely rationahstic 
character of the sect. Without repudiating the super- 
natural birth of Jesus, he categorically denies His 
divinity, recognising only His spiritual oneness with 
the Father. He took skilful advantage of the absence 
of any exact Trinitarian formula during the whole 
of the second century in the west, to maintain that 
the doctrine of the divinity of Christ had never been 
held at Rome previous to the bishopric of Zephyrinus, 
who was the first to give the dignity of a dogma to 

* Theodoret, " Heretic, fabul.," ii. 5. 

f TovQ dk 'M.e\xi-(TedeKLavovg Tfirifia [xev dvai rovrojv (pam. Ibid., ii. 6.) 
QsodoTog, TpaTre^iTTjg tt^v Texvijv, XkysL ^vva}iiv Tivd rbv MfXxto'E^fK tivai 
[xeyi(TTr]v. (" Phil.," vii. 36.) 



BOOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. 13I 

that which was only a recent invention.* This was 
to misconceive the deep and universal character of 
Christian thought from the beginning, and like a jurist, 
to balance the imperfectness of the formula against 
the substantial reality of the faith. Probably Artemon 
also found support for his assertion in the vacillations 
of the bishop Zephyrinus, a man of weak mind, carried 
about with every wind of doctrine, under the influence 
of the cunning Callisthus, who was first his maire dtc 
palais and then his successor. It is certain that 
Callisthus also had encouraged the Theodotian sect, 
making advances to it, as he did in turn to all the 
other rehgious factions. t But the inconsistency and 
rogueries of an individual cannot prevail to shake the 
living tradition of the Church's faith. 

The most brilliant representative of the School of 
Artemon was Paul of Samosata, who filled the episco- 
pal chair at Antioch from the year 260 to 270.+ Thanks 
to the favour of Queen Zenobia, who showed herself 
very favourably inclined towards Judaism and all that 
was akin to it, he enjoyed' extraordinary credit, and was 
the first type of those courtly bishops whom the union 
of the Church with the Empire multiplied rapidly 
during the following century. The Church of Antioch 
was an influential one ; the Christians could lend large 

- Theodoret, "Heretic, fabul.," ii. 11. Eusebius, " H. E.,'~ 
V. 28. f "Phil.,"ix. 12. 

\ Beside the ordinary writers on heresies, the principal authorities 
for Paul of Samosata are : ist. The fragments of his writings, col- 
lected by John of Byzance (" Contra Nestor, et Eutych.," lib. iii.), 
reproduced from a MS. at Oxford by Ehrlich. " Dissertatio de er- 
roribus Paul Samos." Leipzig, 1745. (To be seen in the Imperial 
Library of Paris.) 2nd. Collection of the Councils of Mansi (i. 1033, 
V. 393). "Epist. episc. ad Paul." 3rd. Mai', "Nova collectio," vii. i. 

10 * 



132 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

support to the party they chose to sustain. Hence 
their leader was an important personage, especially in 
the formidable contests which frequently imperilled the 
power of the queen. Paul of Samosata made large use 
of his influence in a luxurious and worldly city. He 
even obtained a public office, that of ducenarius, or 
receiver of the public moneys, a post which brought 
him some revenue. Surrounding himself with all the 
splendour of oriental affluence, he endeavoured to bring 
all the neighbouring churches under his control. He 
acted the metropolitan ;* his episcopal chair resembled 
a throne. t He even claimed the right of exercising a 
civil jurisdiction, citing to his tribunal all legal cases 
among Christians. Large sums of money accrued to 
him through this imprudent interference in questions 
of litigation.! He went about escorted by a magni- 
ficent cortege. It was a spectacle equally novel and 
lamentable, to see the representative of a persecuted 
and still proscribed Church rivalling in pomp and 
arrogance the magistrates of the highest rank. Was 
it possible that a life which had so cast off all austerity 
could remain pure ? The doubt was in all minds. The 
charge of immorality, without being distinctly stated, 
hung over the brilliant bishop. § He was too often seen 
surrounded by elegant women, for his morals to be 
above suspicion. The rumour soon spread that his 
doctrine was as unsound as his practice. He had 
ventured to expurgate from the service the hymns of 
adoration sung to the praise of Jesus Christ, while he 

* 'Y-iprjXd (ppovH. (Eusebius, " H. E./' vii. 30,) 

f Brjfxa [Xfv Kai Opovov v-iprjXbv lavT(^ KaraaKivauaiitvoQ (Ibid., vii. 30.) 

\ Ibid., vii. 30. § Ibid., vii. 30. 



BOOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. 133 

tolerated anthems in his own honour.* Such an inno- 
vation seemed sufficiently indicative of his tendencies. 
Firmilianus, the most influential bishop of Cappadocia, 
had come twice to Antioch to certify himself of the 
opinions held by Paul of Samosata. The latter had 
justified himself in ambiguous language, and been 
lavish of fair promises ; but he showed no inclination to 
keep them, and again asserted, with even more open- 
ness than before, his peculiar doctrines. The pertur- 
bation was great in all the Churches. Many efforts at 
conciliation were made in vain. Paul of Samosata 
resisted all the advice and all the arguments brought 
to bear upon him. 

Three councils were held at Antioch : the last, which 
was decisive, assembled in the year 269.1 Paul of 
Samosata could not meet the cogent reasonings of 
Malchion, who was only a presbyter;! he was con- 
strained to lift the mask, and declare himself fully 
as a Unitarian. His condemnation was pronounced; 
another bishop was put in his place, but he only 
yielded in the last extremity, after the defeat of Ze- 
nobia. The bishops, in order to give to their decision 
the force of law, called in the support of the Emperor 
Aurelian, who declared them to be in the right. § We 
shall have occasion subsequently to investigate all the 
incidents of this matter, which had an important bearing 
on the organisation of the Church. For the present, 
we confine ourselves strictly to the exposition of the 

* "^aXuovg tovq fxkv dg rbv Kvpiov yjfiwv ^Iijaovv Xpiarbv Travaag. 
(Eusebius, "H. E.," vii. 30.) 

f Ibid., vii. 30. I Ibid., vii. 29. 

§ 'ETTfi avrkravt Kal rijv Trjg iKK\i]aiag Kareix^v i]yijXOViav, Avp-qKiavbv 

tTTuaav iliKaaai TJjg k/cX/jtrta^. (Theodore t, " Hasretic. fabul," ii. S.) 



134 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

doctrine of Paul of Samosata, as it is made known to 
us by the fragments of his writings which have been 
preserved by his contemporaries. 

The Bishop of Antioch carried out the principles of 
Theodotus and Artemon to their extreme consequences. 
He lowered the dignity of Christ so far as to liken Him 
to a mere man.* Denying His pre-existence, he ad- 
mitted no distinction of persons in the Godhead. t The 
Word was, for him, simply the consciousness which 
God has of Himself; it is to the Father what the mind 
of man is to man himself, not a separate person, but the 
simple consciousness of his own personality, t In this 
sense man is the image of God, but he can never attain 
to a unity of essence with the Divine Being, not even 
by Jesus Christ. Paul of Samosata did not, however, 
as has been asserted, make the divinity of Jesus Christ 
to consist in a mere psychological resemblance with 
God. He recognised a positive action of the Word upon 
the man Jesus; the Spirit of God had descended upon 
Him,§ but this action was merely an influence, and did 
not imply unity of essence, |1 Jesus Christ was indeed 
born of a Virgin, but He was none the less in His nature 
a man like other men, with this difference, that He 
realised holiness,ir and thus merited the grace of God in 

* TaTTsiva Trepl tov Xpiarov (ppovrjoavrog, mq kolvov tyjv ^vaiv avQpcoTrov 
yevofievov. (Eusebius, " H. E.," vii. 27.) 

t 'O HafioaaTWQ k(pp6vei fiev (ii) dvai irpb Mapiag tov viov. (Athanasius, 
" De syn. Arim. et Seleuc," ii. 920. Paris Edition.) 

X 'Ev 9iqi dk dd ovra tov auTOV \6yov seal to Trvivfia avTOv, loairtp iv 
dvOpcoTTov Kapd'ia 6 Wtog Xojog. (Epiphanius, " Haeres.," 65.) 

§ See Baur, " Dreieinig.," i. 304. 

Ij 'EXOovra dk tov Xoyov Kal yovv oitcfjaavTa kv 'Irjcrov dvBpUiTTfp ovti. 
(Epiphanius, " Haeres.," 65.) 

^ 'A^' ov TrporlXOev diro Tfjg aTriipaydiiov TrapShov, aTtb tots, vwq 
aXpr}[idTi(Tiv. (Athanasius, " Contra omnes hseres.," I 1081.) 



BOOK I.-— THE FIRST UNITARIANS. I35 

extraordinary measure.* The Divine Word animated 
Him by inspiration, but was not incarnate in Him. 
" Wisdom," said Paul of Samosata, " did not enter into 
substantial union with human nature, "t Thus the 
difference between Jesus Christ and other men is rela- 
tive only. Wisdom simply dwelt in Him in an ex- 
ceptional manner, and it was by the measure of this 
Divine communication alone, that He was raised above 
ourselves, t How indeed can it be maintained that 
Jesus is the Son of God ? Is not that name already 
given to the Eternal Wisdom ? It would follow then 
that there must be two Sons of God § in the absolute 
sense, which is impossible. Jesus was not, therefore, 
the Son of God when He was born of the Virgin, but 
acquired that high dignity by virtue of His holiness. 
The Word was greater than Jesus, but Jesus was 
exalted by wisdom. || '' There is," says Paul of Samosata, 
" no other mode of union between various natures and 
various persons, except that which proceeds from the 
will."1I Remaining pure from sin, Christ enjoyed 
union with God. He became our holy and righteous 
Saviour, having triumphed in His conflict and agony 
over the sin of our forefather.** This oneness of the 

* Qe'iag xapirog Siacpepovrojg r]^L(x)fxkvov. (Theod., " Hseretic. fabuL," ii. 8.) 

f Ou yap avyyeyevfjaOai t(^ dvOpoJTrivc^ rrjv (TO(pLav ovcnatdCog dXXd Kara 
TTOioTrjTa. (Ehrlich, p. 23.) 

X To evoiKtiaaL kv avrqi rr}v aoc^iav Xsyetv ojg ev ovStvl a\X(^, rbv fifu 
rpoTTOv rrjg kvoLicrj(je(i)g drjXol f^STpi^j de Kal ttXtjOh inrep^epeiv. (Ibid., 23.) 

§ Ibid., 23. 

11 'O \6yog nei^Mv rfv Tov Xpi(TTOv, Xpiarbg Ua ao^iag fxeyag syevsro. 
(Text of Paul of Samosata. Mai, " Nova coll.," vii. 299.) 

% Ai didcpopaL (pvaeig Kal rd didcpopa TT/JOcrwTra eva Kal [lovov evaxreojg 
exovni rpoTTov r-qv Kara rrjv QeKqaLV avfijiaaiv. (Ibid., vii. 68.) 

** Muvag KaQapbg d/xapTiag t)vb)9rj avTif, liyiog Kal diKULog ykyovtv JifioJi' 
b (jiornp. (" Ex Pauli sermonib. ad Sabinum." Ibid., vii. i.) 



136 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

will in love is far higher than mere unity of nature. It 
is thus Jesus was raised into intimate union with God, 
and that the Divine Spirit rested upon Him in far larger 
measure than upon the prophets, dwelling in Him as in 
a temple.* Paul of Samosata substituted an apotheosis 
for the incarnation, suggesting that Jesus from man 
became God, always however in a relative sense. t Re- 
demption no less than incarnation is sacrificed by such 
a doctrine. In short, Jesus is the ideal man, who 
flashes before our eyes the purest rays of Divine 
wisdom. The distance between such a system and the 
Christianity of the apostles was indeed so great, that 
the Church rejected it without hesitation, as soon as it 
was able to form a true estimate of it. It was not 
needful to have recourse to a pagan emperor for the 
verdict ; the sentence pronounced by the Christian 
conscience was itself decisive. It is curious to observe 
that the Fathers of the Council of Antioch rejected the 
expression consubstantiality , which was to find so much 
favour at Nicsea.J They feared that it might be taken 
in an equivocal sense, which would sacrifice the dis- 
tinction of the Divine persons. 

Beryllus, Bishop of Botsra, belonged to this class of 
Unitarians, until he was brought back by Origen to 
the general faith of the Church, as the result of a free 
discussion of opinions.§ We are made acquainted with 
his system only by a short passage in Eusebius, of 
which the most various interpretations are given. It 
runs thus : " Beryllus maintained that our Lord and 

* 'Qg ev vat^ dtov. (Mai, " Nova collect.," vii. 299.) 
t 'E^ dv9puj7r(vv y'kjove dtoQ. (Athanasius, i. 920.) 

§ Eusebius, " H. E.," vi. 33. 



BOOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. I37 

Saviour did not exist in the proper determination of His 
being before His manifestation among men ; that He 
did not possess Divinity, but that the Divine paternity 
only took up its abode in Him."* Some have attempted 
to derive from this text the idea of a Divine hypostasis 
taking place at the birth of Christ. The very being of 
God is supposed then to have undergone a change, or 
rather He of His own will then modified His mode of 
existence. The determination of His being must be 
referred to the absolute and transcendent One, that is to 
God. We can discern no such indication in this famous 
passage. To us it seems to assert simply the personality 
of Jesus. Before His birth He did not exist as the per- 
sonal Word. He had no distinct pre-natal existence 
more than other men. The principle of His higher life 
was in God, as is the principle of all moral existence, or 
as the light which is concentrated in the central lumi- 
nary. He only entered on a personal and determinate 

* 'RripvXKoQ Tov aojrrjpa Xeytiv ro^fiwv fxr] Trpovcptordvai kut i^iav over La <; 
7r€piypa(priv npo rrjg eig dvBpojTrovQ k7nSr][jLiag jxrjde jxriv QeSrrjra ISiav ix^iv 
dW f.jX7CoKiTf.vQfxkvriv avT(^ fiovrjv Trjv TrarpiKrjv. (Eusebius, " H. E.," 
vi. 33.) We shall not enter into the controversy raised by the 
interpretation of this passage. Schleiermacher erroneously dis- 
covers in it a determination of the being of God dating from the 
incarnation. We adhere fully to the opinion of Baur, who dis- 
covers in it simply the negation of the individual pre-existence of 
Jesus Christ. He quotes on this subject a very positive passage of 
Origen, who reproaches a class of Unitarians, in whom it is easy 
to recognise the school of Beryllus, with denying the divinity of the 
Son, while asserting for Him a determinate existence entirely 
distinct from the Father — that is to say, absolutely human : TiOsvrag 
dk avTOV TTfV iSioTtjTa, Kai rr/v ovaiav Kara TTEpiypa^rjv rvyxdvovaav kr'fpav 
TOV TvarpSg. (Origen, " In Johann.," vol. ii. chap. 2.) There is no 
question, then, of a new determination of the very being of God, 
since the result of such teaching is the negation of the divinity 
of Christ. Dorner does not seem to have given sufficient weight 
to this passage of Origen. (Work quoted, p. 553, and following.) 



138 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

existence at His birth; the Divine element which He 
possesses comes to Him from the Father, or the one 
God. He did not receive it by the medium of emana- 
tion, as if He were Himself a feebler ray of the Eternal 
Light: it became His as the result of a purely moral 
union. The Divinity took up its abode in the heart of 
Jesus, as in a holy dwelling-place, truly worthy of it, 
and where it was made a welcome guest. Beryllus, 
while a heretic, far from being at issue with the first 
principle of the Unitarians, represents it with greater 
clearness than any other teacher. 

§ n. The Second School of Unitarians. 

The apotheosis of the man Jesus was the final utter- 
ance of the first school of Unitarians. This is also 
the motto of Western Paganism, which is epitomised 
in humanism. We have seen how vain and illusory 
is this hypothesis : man remains what he is, and true 
union with God is not realised. Do we find this want 
more fully met in the second school, that which pro- 
ceeds rather from the East than the West, and which 
absorbs the human in the Divine element ? We know 
already what is the scope of the pantheistic religions 
of Asia Minor and India : they recognise only an im- 
personal infinity, in which all reality is absorbed and 
lost. The God of the East is the great devourer. 
When He reveals Himself it is not like Jehovah speak- 
ing to Moses from the midst of a bush, which burns 
without being consumed. He is Himself a terrible fire, 
which consumes the prophet and the bush ; He reduces 
to annihilation both the world through which He mani- 



BOOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. 139 

fests Himself and the man who seeks to hear His voice. 
Nay, more, He Himself disappears in the void of a 
pantheism which denies to Him any self-consciousness. 
Thus does all idolatry in the end break its own idol. 
Neither God nor man is safe in religions or in systems 
which sacrifice the human or the Divine element by 
absorbing the one in the other. The second form of 
primitive Unitarianism, embodied in the school of 
Praxeas, Noetus, and Sabellius, is a reaction of the 
old oriental genius ; it is Gnosticism, without its elabo- 
rate and fantastic symbolism, adhering more closely to 
historic realities and to the letter of the sacred texts. 

Praxeas was the first representative of this school at 
Rome. He came from Asia, and bore in his body the 
glorious stigmata of the Confessors. Thus he gained at 
first much credit with the Bishop Victor, and obtained 
from him the condemnation of Montanism. At the 
same time he began to propagate his peculiar doctrines, 
the issue of which was such an absolute identification 
of God the Father with Jesus Christ, that, in his own 
energetic manner, Tertullian says of him : " He has 
driven prophecy from Rome and has brought in heresy ; 
he has put to flight the Paraclete, and crucified the 
Father."* In other words, he condemned Montanism, 
and attributed to God the sufferings of the Cross. This 
last accusation, which may be accepted only with cer- 
tain qualifications, gained for the doctrine of Praxeas 
the name of P atrip assianism. The head of the sect pro- 
bably expressed himself in subtle and metaphysical 
language ; he was not therefore at once understood by 

* " Paracletum fugavit et Patrem crucifixit." (Tertullian, " Adv. 
Prax. " chap, i.^l 



140 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the leaders of the Church at Rome, who were always 
somewhat inapt at religious philosophy. We thus ac- 
count for the favour which he at first found, and by 
which even his subsequent adherents profited. He began 
by enunciating the dogma of the Divine unity with 
great energy, establishing the monarchy in the absolute 
sense.* The dogma of the Trinity, to judge by his re- 
presentations, broke the primordial unity, and proposed 
three Gods for Christian worship, while there is in 
truth but one. Praxeas took his stand chiefly on the 
well-known text : *' I am God, and there is none beside 
Me." He explained this by the saying of Jesus: "I 
and the Father are one. He who hath seen Me hath 
seen the Father."! He also cited, in support of his 
thesis, all the declarations of the Old Testament against 
polytheism.! Praxeas thus admitted no distinction of 
persons in God ; he saw in Him only the Father or ab- 
solute principle of the universe. In the incarnation, 
the Most High united Himself to the human flesh of 
Jesus. Thus was established, for the first time, the 
distinction between the Father and the Son. The 
Father is in Jesus as the Divine principle; the Son re- 
presents the flesh. But the union of the two elements 
is so close that the Father shares the sufferings of the 
Son in His crucified body. " It was announced," says 
Praxeas, " by the angel to Mary, that that holy thing 
which should be born of her should be called the Son 
of God. Now it was the flesh which was born ; it is 
the flesh then which is the Son of God."§ It follows 

* "Monarchiam, inquiunt, tenemus." (Tertullian, chap. 3.) 

f Tertullian, "Adv. Prax.," 20. | Ibid., 18. 

§ " Ecce, inquiunt, ab angelo prasdicatum est : propterea quod 



BOOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. I4I 

that this humanity is a mere semblance : it is but the 
corporeal covering of the Divine Spirit, which is at once 
the Word and the Father. Doubtless the Father does 
not suffer directly, but He suffers in the flesh which is 
united to Him, in His strange identification with the 
Son, who has no existence apart from Him, since He 
has no personality.* It is difficult to conceive what 
redemption can be on such a theory, except the final 
absorption of the finite in the infinite, and this is, in 
fact, the logical conclusion of the system. 

The doctrine of Praxeas underwent numerous mo- 
difications before it assumed its final form. We 
have very incomplete documents upon the system of 
Bero.t He appears to have been the first to attempt to 
explain the transfusion of the Divine and the human in 
the person of Jesus, by the doctrine of the humiliation. 
The Divine stooped, and the human was raised and 
glorified by its participation with the higher element. 
Unhappily, Bero, refusing to accept the distinction of 
the Divine persons, could only recognise a very in- 
complete union between humanity and Deity. Apart 
from the doctrine of the incarnation of the Word, there 
were but two alternatives ; either the total absorption of 
the Divine in the human, or a partial communication 
of the Divine nature to man ; for it is simply impossible 
to conceive that the Father, in all the glory of His God- 
head, can have been enshrined in Jesus, leaving, as it 
were, the throne of heaven empty. 

nascetur sanctum, vocabitur Filius Dei. Caro itaque nata est, caro 
utique erit Filius Dei." (Ibid., 27.) 

* Tertullian, " Adv. Prax.," 29. 

f See Dorner, " Lehre von der Pers. Jesu," v. ii. 543. 



142 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Noetus, of Smyrna, who came to Rome at the be- 
ginning of the third century, skilfully elaborated the 
doctrine of Praxeas, which had been already modified 
by Cleomenes. According to him there is but one 
God, who is called the Father, and who is the Creator 
of the universe. His will determines the mode of His 
existence, by which He becomes now visible, now in- 
visible.* He determined to emerge from the absolute 
mode of uncreated existence, and submitted Himself to 
the law of birth in the person of Jesus, the offspring of 
the Virgin Mary. He thus appears as at once im- 
passible and subject to suffering, immortal and mortal, 
since, exempt from pain by His own nature, He volun- 
tarily endures the cross. He is called sometimes the 
Father, sometimes the Son, according as He is desig- 
nated by one or other aspect of His nature. In this way 
the theophanies of the Old Testament are explained. 
The Father appeared as the Son to the saints and 
prophets, rendering Himself visible to them.t Noetus 
thought to maintain thus the Divine unity. The 
Father and Son are absolutely one, the latter does not 
proceed from the former ; it is always God who pro- 
ceeds from God, only changing His name according to 
the divers conditions of His manifestation. He was 
the Son during His earthly career after He was born of 
the Virgin, and yet He was also the Father of all intelli- 
gent spirits.]: In short, it is the great God of heaven 

* "Eva ^aaiv elvai 9ebv Kai Tvartpa, dpavrj filv orav I9t\y, (paivo/xevov de 
avTiKa dv jSovXrjrai. (Theodoret, " Heretic, fabul," iii. 3.) 

f 'EvSoK'naavra dk TvecpTjvEvai toIq apxri^^v SiKaioig ovra doparov. (" Phil.," 
ix. 10.) 

X "El/ Kai TO avTO ^dcTKbiv vTrapx^v TraHpa Kal viov KoXovfievov. (Ibid., 
ix. 10.) 



BOOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. I43 

who was nailed upon the cross, pierced by the soldier's 
spear, laid in the new sepulchre, and raised again from 
the dead. 

The merit of Cleomenes and Noetus consists in this 
— that they referred to the sovereign freedom of God the 
different modes of His being. He has the capacity of 
assuming a finite nature, and in so doing He performs 
an act of the will, and consequently of power. On the 
other hand, the doctrine of Noetus necessarily issued in 
pantheism, since it made finite existence only the chang- 
ing manifestation of the Godhead. This was a return to 
the incarnations of Vishnu. Did he complete his sys- 
tem by metempsychosis, as asserted by Epiphanius, 
who charges him with setting himself forth as Moses, 
returned to the land of the living?* It is possible. 
Jesus is after all, on this system, only the type of hu- 
manity ; His personality is but one of the guises as- 
sumed by the great Divine Actor in the long drama of 
the incarnation, if we may borrow the language of 
Indian legends ; there is nothing positive in it. Nor 
can our individuality be anything more defined. The 
same divine element which was in Moses reappears in 
Noetus, as he who is called the angel of the Lord in the 
Old Testament takes the name of Jesus in the Gospel. 
This is a logical deduction. 

Noetus, cited before the elders of the Church of Rome, 
to give account of his doctrine, refused at first to reply. 
Then, emboldened by success, he expressed himself 
with a clearness which left no possibility of doubt. On 
a second accusation, he boldly answered his adversaries : 
" What evil have I then done ? I glorify the one God ; 
'^ Epiphanius, " Hceres.," ^y. 



144 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

I own no other ; it is He who was born, who suffered, 
who died." These sectaries, like Praxeas, took their 
stand on the texts of Scripture which refute polytheism, 
and especially upon the declaration of God to Moses: "I 
am the God of thy fathers, there is no other God after 
me." "This," said they, "is what we believe. Therefore, 
when Jesus Christ comes to be born upon earth, we say 
it is the same God, Father and Son, who has been from 
the beginning, and who now comes down to us."* 

The oriental monarchical school might think for a 
moment that it was about to triumph through the 
intrigues of the former slave Callisthus, who made use 
of his influence over the old Bishop Zephyrinus, in 
order to secure his own election. Faithful to the 
maxim that those who will receive court must pay 
court, he favoured in turns all the existing sects, 
that he might gather adherents on all hands; and 
he was ever ready to condemn one day those whom he 
had flattered and caught by his artifices the day before. 
He appears to have given substantial encouragement 
to the heresy of Cleomenes and Noetus, and even to 
have espoused for some time their favourite ideas, for 
he defended them vigorously against Hippolytus, 
Bishop of Ostia. Callisthus had gained such a hold of 
the mind of Zephyrinus, that he dictated to him lan- 
guage which was the simple reproduction of the heresy 
of Noetus. The Church of Rome, with amazement, 
heard its bishop thus express himself in a public 
assembly: "I acknowledge only one God, Jesus Christ, 
and no other beside Him, who was born and died."t 

^~ Epiphanius, " Haeres.," 57. 

f 'Eyw olda eva Qtov Xpiarbv 'Iijaovv Kai ttXt^v avTOV srepov ovSkva 
yivrjTOV Kai TraOijTov. ("Phil,," ix. II.) 



BOOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. I45 

It is true that Callisthus covered his retreat by such 
ambiguous words as these : " It is not the Father who 
died, but the Son,"* thus designating the flesh of the 
Crucified, according to the terminology of Praxeas. 
This equivocal attitude did not prevent him from 
charging Christians, who, like Hippolytus, were faith- 
ful to the great traditions of the Church, with being 
ditheists, or worshippers of two Gods.t 

Callisthus subsequently endeavoured to modify some- 
what the form of Noetus' doctrine : he preserved its 
essential ideas, while combining them with those of 
Praxeas and Sabelhus. According to him, the first 
principle is called the Word, and manifests itself under 
the three aspects of Father, Son, and Spirit. The 
universe is filled with the Divine Spirit ; that Spirit 
who is identical with the Father, because incarnate in 
the womb of the Virgin. Thus Jesus could say, with 
reason : '' Believest thou not that I am in the Father, 
and the Father in Me." The Spirit, invisible in the 
person of Jesus Christ, is the Father; the visible 
humanity is the Son. We have then but one God, and 
escape all duality. The Christ is only one God, a 
single person. His flesh has been deified by union with 
the Divine element ; and the Father, by His union 
with the flesh, had a sympathetic part in the sufferings 
on the Cross. I Thus, in the heretical phase of his 
career, Callisthus practised a true electicism, and 
sought to combine all the elements of monarchism. 
He did not found a school, in the strict sense of the 

^ "Phil.," ix. II. t 'ATrsKoXei rn-iag dMovg. (Ibid., ix. II.) 

X To ^iv yap jSXsTroixEvov, oirep iarlv dv9p(o7rog, tovto elvai rov vVov, to 
ds tv T({i v'njj \(x)p7]Qfiv TTvevjjLa tovto dvai tov TruTspa. 'O rraTiijp Trjv ffdpKa 
WeoTToirjasv — tov TraTepa (jvjXTmzovQkvai T(p vt(p. (Ibid,, ix, 12.) 

II 



146 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

word, but simply a faction, a party, in which intrigues 
were of more importance than ideas. Originality was 
not so much desiderated as finesse. As soon as Callis- 
thus had attained his ends, he condemned his late 
allies, and declared himself on the side of rigid ortho- 
doxy. 

Sabellius of Lybia, a contemporary of Callisthus, 
since he died in the year 260, gave to monarchism 
a much more definite form, and endeavoured to re- 
concile it with the Trinitarian doctrines which had 
acquired new precision in the Church.* He landed, 
nevertheless, only in positive pantheism. Returning 
to the philosophical language of Alexandria, he desig- 
nated the first principle under the name of Monas, or 
Unity.! This is the Supreme Being of Philo, motion- 
less and silent. He does not remain, however, in 
absolute repose, and creation does not proceed from 
him by the way of emanation. He Himself produces 
or organises the world ; His activity is like the hand 
or the arm stretched out. It is ever the same arm, 
but in stretching itself forth, it works. The Eternal 
Being breaks silence ; He speaks. The word He utters 
is the Logos.! We must set aside here all idea of 
a distinct substance, of hypostasis and personality. 
The Logos is only a new mode of the Divine Being; 

* On the doctrine of Sabellius, see Athanasius, " Contra Arianos 
oratio," iv., c. 2, 9, 13, 14-25; " Exposit fidei," 2; Epiphanius 
" Hseres.," 62 ; Eusebius, " H. E.," vii. 6 ; Theodoret, " Haeretic. 
fabul.," ii. 9. 

f Miav viroaraaiv elvai tov Trarspa Kai rov v\dv koi to liycov Trvevfia. 
(Theodoret, " Haeretic. fabuL," ii. 9.) 

J ToV 9tdv (TKOTTuivTa fxlv dvevspynrov XaXovvra Se laxv^f-v. (Athanasius, 
"Contra Arian. orat." iv. 11.) Eiyf anoTruiv fikv ovk rjSvvaTo iroulv 
\aXS)V Se KTiZiiv rjp^aro. (Ibid., 25.) 



I 



BOOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. I47 

it is that Being diffusing Himself abroad, passing 
from inaction to activity. Was this active operation 
the producing cause of the world, or merely that 
which gave organisation to it ? Are we confronted 
here with a Platonist dualism, or with a complete 
pantheism, which regards all created life as only the 
expansion of the life divine ? The contemporary 
systems of Noetus and Callisthus lead us to interpret 
the system of Sabellius in the latter sense. Creation, 
then, is nothing else than the extended hand of God, 
His word. His manifestation. 

The action of God in relation to the world assumes 
three new forms, which do not help to suggest the 
idea of personality. He reveals Himself alternately 
as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.* The Father 
has often been confounded with the original Monas. 
It is easy to understand how Christian thought, ac- 
customed to see in the Father the first person of the 
Trinity, should with some difficulty have disabused 
itself of this idea. But, evidently, Sabellius himself 
did not so confound the two. It is not possible that 
the Father should appear twice in His system, first 
as the Monas before the world, and then as the first 
mode of the divine activity in creation.! In the 
same manner the Word must be carefully distin- 
guished from the Son, since the Word designates 
the transition in God from silence to speech, from 

* 'O iraT-qp TrXaTvvsTai Se dg viov Kal Trvev/xa. (Athanasius, " Contra 
Arian. orat," iv. 25.) 'H fiovag TrXarvvOelGa ykyove Tpiag. (Ibid., 1 3.) 

•j- Athanasius, who has more than once confounded the Monas 
with the Father^ yet himself preserved the distinction : Ei /u?) 77 
Movdg aAAo ri Ian Trapa rov Trartpa. He adds : V p-ovdg rpiojv TroirjTiKr]. 
(Ibid., iv. 13.) He calls the Monas, vio-n-dropa. (Athanasius, " De 
synodis," 16.) 

II * 



148 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

repose to creative activity, while the Son has His 
part only in the world already created, and after the 
commencement of human history.* This deviation 
from the received language of the Church attaching 
a new sense to consecrated words, did much to bring 
obscurity upon the system of Sabellius, which in a 
constructive point of view was singularly clear. He 
compares the three modes of divine action sometimes 
to the sun, which is at once the focus of light, the 
beam which irradiates, and the flame which warms ; t 
sometimes to the faculties of the human soul, some- 
times to the divine gifts of the Holy Spirit. J The 
primeval and eternal Monas lives again entirely in 
its various manifestations. Each of these returns 
to its source and is there absorbed, just as the solar 
ray returns to its focus. God revealed Himself as 
the Father in the giving of the law ; this is the 
period of the Old Covenant. He revealed Himself 
as the Son in the incarnation of Jesus, in whom all 
His fulness dwells. Lastly, He reveals Himself as 
the Spirit in the illumination of the Apostles and of 
the Church. § His manifestation as the Father ended 

^ The distinction between the Word and the Son appears 
already in this passage of Athanasius : ^affi p,rj elpiiadai Iv ry TraXaiq, 
TTipl v'lov aXXa Tnpl Xoyov, Kai did tovto vewrtpov vttovohv tov \6yov rbv 
viov diatetaiovvTat. (Athanasius, " Contra Arian.," iv. 22.) "They 
say that the Son is not spoken of in the Old Testament, but only 
the Word. Hence the Son is, according to them, posterior to the 
Word." Athanasius says plainly that Sabellius dared to dis- 
tinguish the Son from the Word : ToXfxuiv diaipdv Xoyov Kal viov. 
(Athanasius, "De synodis.," 15.) f Epiphanius, " Hseres.," 62. 

J "Qa-n-ep diaipkauQ xapi-<^H'"-'''(^V' (Athanasius, " Contra Arian.," iv. 

25.) 

§ Kal kv fziv ry TraXaig, ojg Trarepa voiioBtrriaaL, Iv ry Kaivy ih^ viov 
evavOpioTrrjffai, ojg TrvEVfia de. ayiov toIq d-KOOToXoiQ iirKpoiTriaaL. (Theodoret, 

" Hasretic fabul.," ii. 9.) 



BOOK I. — THE FIRST UNITARIANS. I49 

with the Old Testament, otherwise He would not 
have been fully manifested in the Son. It follows 
that the incarnation was itself but a temporary fact, 
which ceased so soon as its end was attained. The 
Christ-God has not retained any distinct personality. 
Sabellius, therefore, falls as far short as Ebionitism 
of the recognition of His true dignity. The Holy 
Spirit, who is the existing form of the divine operation 
in the world, and who is the soul of the present 
economy, will be in the same manner reabsorbed in the 
primeval Monas ; and with Him, it seems, all finite 
existence will cease. Although Sabellius does not 
express himself clearly upon this point, it is so fully in 
harmony with the logic of his system, that we may 
regard it as established.* He appears to have very 
slightly handled the doctrine of sin and of redemp- 
tion. Evidently, in his view, salvation is absorption 
in God; redemption is a mere cosmological develop- 
ment ; religious history is the history of the Deity 
Himself, and not the relations of the created with 
the Creator. Sabellianism is, on this point, entirely 
in accordance with oriental religious and gnostic 
doctrines. The drama of the universe has but one 
sole actor — the transcendent, infinite, impersonal God 
— who by the expansion of His own being produces 
the world, and annihilates it by a corresponding pro- 

''' According to Epiphanius, the Son is reabsorbed in the 
primeval Monas so soon as the work of redemption is achieved. 
Hence it may be concluded that the Holy Spirit and the mode of 
existence which He represents will terminate in the same way. 
(See Epiphanius, " H acres.," 62.) Moreover, Athanasius tells us 
that Sabellius taught formally the extinction in God of the crea- 
tion : "Oawep yap dia to Kriaai eTrXaTvvOr), ovtcjiJ Travofievov tov TrKarvaiiov 
Tvavatrai kol 7) ktkjIq. (Athanasius, " Contra Arian.," iv. 13.) 



150 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

cess of contraction. Only Sabellius, warned by the 
condemnation of the Gnostics, speaks in guarded 
language, and endeavours as far as possible to bring 
his doctrine into conformity with the formulas of the 
Church, which is at this time beginning to accept 
Trinitarian ideas. 

Let us remark, in closing this chapter, that Uni- 
tarianism pursued the same course as Ebionitism, 
and proved itself equally incapable of adhering to an 
abstract deism. The yearning after a living God is 
so deep and ardent in the human soul, that when 
it sees upon the throne of heaven only a distant 
Deity, who is nothing more than a cold idea, it falls 
inevitably — or rather, it flings itself instinctively — into 
the arms of a pantheism more or less subtle or 
materialistic. This tendency is especially irresistible 
when the general current of the reigning philosophy 
is in that direction, as in the age of Neo-Platonism 
and Gnosticism. In fine, the heresy most fraught 
with peril at this time for Christian theology was 
naturalistic speculation, the heir of anciept Paganism. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE OF THE SECOND AND 
THIRD CENTURIES, AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE 
FORMATION OF ORAL TRADITION. 

Beside the writings in which the principal heretics 
formulated their systems, we have, in the second and 
third centuries, a whole fictitious sacred literature, 
which shelters under the most revered names of pri- 
mitive Christianity the favourite ideas of Gnosticism, 
or the legends created by the popular imagination. 
The " Clementines " form a sort of intermediary link 
between the exposition of the heretical systems and 
the apocryphal legends, for they present the most 
singular blending of dialectic treatises with arbitrarily 
invented fables. They make no pretension to add to 
the sacred books ; the work is a mere romance, em- 
bodying the views of a certain school. It is otherwise 
with the apocryphal literature, which advances positive 
claims to form part of primitive revelation. In spite 
of its intellectual poverty, barely concealed beneath 
the brilliant mantle of legendary inventions, this litera- 
ture possesses no small interest for us. In the first 
place, it was the most rapid vehicle of heresy. Again, 
it enables us to trace, with some degree of certainty, 
in the Church itself, the current of popular tradition. 



152 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

and to recognise what were the elements it carried 
along in its course, and what was its own bent and 
tendency. A very inadequate notion will be formed 
of the movement of religious ideas in any age, if it 
is regarded only in its highest achievements, and 
studied only in the profound works of illustrious 
teachers. We need to know also how these great 
truths present themselves to the masses of the people, 
and what form they assume in their receptive and 
somewhat sensuous imagination. Numberless super- 
stitions, like parasitic plants, quickly overspread the 
vigorous stem of revelation. In their unhealthy bril- 
liance, they remind one of the luxuriant tropical 
creepers of Indian forests, and they exhale indeed 
the same atmosphere; for in the early ages of Chris- 
tianity it was always from the far East that those 
influences were derived which tended most largely 
to sophisticate the faith of the gospel. 

That which is most strange, is the ascendency 
gradually obtained by this popular superstition. At 
first it excited only contempt, and was even formally 
anathematized. Nevertheless, it won its way into the 
minds of men, and went on circulating noiselessly 
among the lower classes, who never trouble themselves 
about the controversies of the schools, till it acquired 
a moral authority which makes it an important ele- 
ment in the Church's history. That which is pro- 
scribed and denounced as superstition in one century 
often becomes the authorised doctrine of another, and 
its circulation is not only suffered, but sanctioned. The 
doctors of these changed times find excellent reasons 
for its adoption, and frame for it an illustrious pedigree, 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 153 

as a heraldic emblem is made to cover some flaw in a 
title of nobility. Popular tradition is like the persistent 
waves, which, by their ceaseless breaking on the shore, 
gradually change its form under their slow but resistless 
action. In the same manner has tradition wrought 
imperceptibly upon the solid strata of the Christian 
religion, and it is at its hand we must seek the ex- 
planation of the great changes we shall observe in the 
doctrine and morality of Christianity from age to age. 
It is important, then, to trace the singular and often 
utterly strange forms assumed by Christian facts and 
ideas in the numerous apocryphal writings which 
critical science has placed at our disposal. 

Apocryphal literature divides itself into two branches, 
the one decidedly heretical, the other only legendary 
in its origin ; though heresy has made many attempts 
to engraft itself upon it, and has modified it to suit 
its own purposes. 

The writings which belong to the first class have 
almost all disappeared ; they have followed the fortune 
of an exploded and vanished theory. On the other 
hand, the greater part of the apocr3^phal writings, which 
are only legendary, not having excited such keen oppo- 
sition, have survived : they were the favourite reading 
of the simple and the ignorant, and they have been 
preserved with the tenacity inherent in all truly popular 
literature. 

§ I. Apocryphal Writings positively Heretical. 

Mention is made of a number of Gospels attributed 
to the heretics. No one of these has come down to 
us in its integrity. The fragmentary quotations of these 



154 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Gospels, scattered through the writings of the Fathers, 
suffice to make us acquainted with their general cha- 
racter. They are almost all derived from a primitive 
type, which they have altered or overlaid according 
to their several systems. The Gospel of Matthew has 
been most largely manipulated by Judaso-Christians 
of every shade of opinion, and these amended versions 
have been distinguished by various names. The so- 
called Gospel of the Hebrews, spoken of by Clement of 
Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome, is the most 
important of these versions. * It was written in the 
Aramean tongue : the Nazarenes and Ebionites made 
use of it exclusively.! It may possibly have undergone 
some modifications in passing from the one to the other 
sect. In any case, a comparison of this Gospel of the 
Hebrews with our first Gospel is fully sufficient to 
show that it has none of the characters of an original 
writing.! The narrative is overlaid with legendary 
incidents. § It is sometimes corrected, with the evident 

* Hegesippus apud Eusebius, " H. E.," iv. 22 ; Eusebius, " H. E.," 
iii. 25, 27 ; Clement of Alexandria, " Strom.," ii. 9, 45 ; Origen, 
" In Joann.," ii. 6 (vol. iv. 63). " Quod Chaldaico quidem Syroque 
sermone sed Hebraicis litteris scriptum est." (Saint Jerome, " Adv. 
Pelag.," lib. iii. c. i.) See on this question of the apocryphal 
Gospels, M. Nicolas' book. (Michel Ldvy.) 

f There is no ground for making a distinction, as M. Nicolas 
does (" Evangiles apocryphes," p. 60), between the Gospel of the 
Hebrews and that of the Nazarenes, when it is once admitted that 
the former underwent some changes in passing from one sect to 
the other. The Gospel of the twelve apostles (Origen " Homil. i. in 
Luke ") is identical with the Gospel of the Hebrews. 

\ M. Nicolas maintains the contrary opinion. We do not think 
that he says anything to contravene the strong reasoning of Bleck 
in his Introduction to the New Testament (p. 106, and following). 

§ We may mention the incident quoted by Origen, that the 
Holy Spirit transported Jesus on to Mount Tabor by lifting Him 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 155 

intention of getting rid of a chronological difficulty.* 
Both the additions and suppressions by which the 
canonical text is modified, bear the impress of a pre- 
conceived system. The suppression of the first two 
chapters, which contain the account of the miraculous 
conception, is characteristic of the school which would 
not acknowledge the eternal Godhead of Jesus, f For 
the same reason, the Gospel of the Hebrews, on the 
occasion of the baptism of Jesus, puts into the mouth 
of the Father the words, " To-day have I begotten 
Thee." The place given to this text in such a con- 
nection was evidently designed to confirm the idea that 
the divinity of Christ dated from His solemn conse- 
cration by the Baptist. t The influence of Gnostic 
or Essenian Ebionitism is easy to discern in the 
curious passage in which the Spirit is spoken of as 
the mother of Jesiis.% Undoubtedly we have here that 

by one hair of His head (Origen, " In Joann.," vol. ii. ch. 6). The 
Gospel of the Hebrews sometimes combines also the Gospel of 
Matthew with that of Luke. The fragment on the Resurrection, 
quoted in the Epistle of Ignatius to the Sm^Tneans (c. 3), is an 
imitation of Luke xxiv. 39. 

* The Gospel of the Hebrews does away with the great difficulty 
relating to Zachariah, whom our Matthew erroneously calls the son 
of Barachia or Baruch (Matt, xxiii. 35), while he was in truth the 
son of Jehoiada. He is so spoken of in the apocryphal Gospel 
(Jerome, "Comm. in Matt," xxiii. 35). We have another clear 
proof that the apocr^-phal Gospel is subsequent to our Greek Gospel. 
It mentions that John the Baptist's food in the wilderness was 
cakes of honey, not locusts. (Epiphanius " Hasres.," xxx. 13.) 
Evidently the interpolater read in Matt. iii. 4, eyKpideg instead of 
aKpidtg. This confusion of words implies the antecedence of the 
Greek to that of the first Gospel. 

f Epiphanius, " Hsres.," xxx. 14. 

I Ibid., xxx. 13. 

§ "Apri tXdSk jxe i) iJ.{]TT]p fiov to liyiov Trvevfxa. 
XV. in Jeremiah," 4, vol. iii. 224.) 



156 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

eternal female element which formed part of the 
primordial duality of the Elkasaites, and which they 
likened to the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of the 
Hebrews considerably modifies the declaration which 
at the commencement of the Sermon on the Mount 
asserts the permanence of the law of the prophets. 
It makes Christ say : "1 am come to abrogate the 
sacrifices,"* thus sanctioning one of the most important 
innovations of Gnostic Judaism, which insisted on the 
abolition of the sacrifices of blood. At the time of 
instituting the Lord's Supper, Jesus, according to this 
same Gospel, pronounced these words : " Have I then 
indeed desired to eat with you the flesh of the paschal 
lamb."! Here we note the strong antipathy of the 
Essenian Ebionites to all animal food. Clearly a very 
definite system can be traced through all these emen- 
dations of the Gospel history. 

The modifications are still more considerable in 
the " Gospel of the Egyptians," which appears to 
have been in the same manner based upon the 
Gospel of Matthew|. This is known to us chiefly 
through Clement of Alexandria, and by the second 
(apocryphal) letter of Clement of Rome. The passages 
which have been preserved have an odour of ascetic 
theosophy which cannot be mistaken, in spite of the 
effort made by Clement of Alexandria to construe them 
in an orthodox sense. Let us cite the leading passages. 
" The Lord replied to one who asked Him when 
His kingdom should come, ' It shall come when two 
shall be one ; when the external shall be identified with 

* Epiphanius, " Hseres.," xxx. 16. f Ibid., xxx. 22. 

I Ibid., Ixii. ; Origen, " Homil. i. in Luke." 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 157 

the internal, and the male with the female, so that 
there shall be neither male nor female.' "* The allu- 
sion here is clearly to the suppression of all dis- 
tinction between the body and soul ; the body is 
that which is external, the soul that which is internal. 
We know also that in the symbolic language of 
Gnosticism, the material element is represented by 
the feminine, and the spiritual by the masculine. 
Clement of Alexandria thus supplemented this strange 
text: "It shall come when you shall have thrown 
off the garb of modesty." t The garments of skins 
in which God clothed Adam and Eve in Eden, to 
hide their nakedness, were likened to the body by 
all the Jewish theosophists. Matter, corporeality, is 
then to be dissolved, in order that the kingdom of 
Jesus may be set up. The same idea underlies another 
passage, not less enigmatical. " When Salome asked 
the Lord how long death should reign, ' It shall 
reign,' He replied, * so long as you women bring 
forth children.' * I rejoice, then,' said Salome, ' never 
to have brought forth.' The Lord replied, * Eat of 
every herb, but take not that which is bitter.' " % 
The bitter herb which produces death is evidently 
marriage. There can be no doubt that this is the 
meaning of this injunction, when we compare it 
with another saying ascribed to Jesus : " I am come 
to destroy the work of the woman." § The woman is 
that earthly Eve who in Gnosticism represents the 

* "Orav ysvrjrai ra dvo ev kuI to dppev fisrd rrjg OsXeiag. (Clement, 
" Strom.," iii. 13, 92.) Clement of Rome, 2nd ep., ch. cxcii.) 

t "Orav TO TrjQ ah'xvvrjQ 'iv^vfia TraTrjaeTe. (" Strom.," iii. 1 3, 02.) 
M. Nicolas' interpretation is conclusive on this point. 

I Clement of Alexandria, " Strom.," iii. 6, 45. § Ibid., iii. 9, 63. 



158 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

material element, that seductive maid of Indian fables 
who encompasses the soul and consumes the life of 
the spirit. The Gospel of the Egyptians was rightly 
narned, for the land of Egypt, close to the syna- 
gogue where Philo had taught, was the fitting birth- 
place for this hybrid product of modified Judseo- 
Christianity and modified Gnosticism. We hear again 
of a Gospel of Peter, of which the only known spe- 
ciality was its supposition of a previous marriage of 
Joseph, the offspring of which were the brothers and 
sisters of the Lord. This tradition was designed to 
guarantee the perpetual virginity of Mary, and to place 
her outside the pale of the ordinary conditions of hu- 
manity.* The Gospel of Peter was another version of 
that of Matthew. The '' Preaching of Peter," of which 
so much is said in the *' Clementines," was probably a 
legendary account of the controversies between Peter 
and Simon Magus. This is very apparent from the 
analysis given of it in the " Recognitions." t The 
Gnostics, properly so called, have not failed to 
mutilate at pleasure the sacred writings. Basilides 
had contented himself with writing a commentary, 
for it is false to accuse him of having sought to 
make a gospel of his own. I The Valentinians and 
Manichseans were less scrupulous. They boldly com- 
posed gospels, making use of the narratives of Luke 
and John, which they completely remoulded. The 
Fathers refer to a gospel, called the gospel of truth,^ 

* Eusebuis, "H. E.," vi. 12. Serapion, bishop of Antioch in 170, 
had found it in use in the Church of Rhossus in Cihcia. He at 
once perceived that it favoured docetism. 

f "Recognitions," vol. iii. c. 75. | Origen, "Preface to Luke." 

§ Irenaeus, "Adv. haeres.," iii. 11. 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. I59 

in which Valentine embodied the most absolute 
pantheism, as may be gathered from this fragment : 
*' I halted upon a high mountain, and heard a voice 
like thunder saying to me, ' I am thou, and thou 
art I ; wherever thou art, I am. I am shed abroad 
in all.'"* We may further mention the gospel of per- 
fection, as it was called, and '' the Great and Small 
Interrogatories of Mary." Lastly, also, the gospel 
ascribed to Philip. All these writings had the same 
pantheistic basis; the theme was only varied by the 
diversity of the symbols, "which were often obscure. 

The following fragment from the so-called Gospel 
of Philip seems to allude to the rites of initiation 
in some Valentinian sect : '* The Lord has revealed 
that which the soul ought to say when it rises to 
the heavens, and how it ought to reply to the celestial 
powers. ' I have come to know myself,' it shall say. 
* I have not engendered sons of Archon, but I have torn 
up my roots and gathered together my scattered mem- 
bers, and I have learned to know what thou art.' " t 
These words ascribe salvation to knowledge and 
asceticism. In them is a remembrance of the famous 
mysteries of Bacchus, in which the torn members of 
the young god represented the dispersion of beings 
at the moment of creation, while the resurrection 
symbolised the universal palingenesis by the return 
to unity. 

The Gospel of Marcion is simply an expurgated 

edition of the Gospel of Luke. All the narratives, 

all the words even, which might in any degree favour 

Judaism, are omitted. The question of authenticity 

* Epiphanius, " Haeres.," xxvi. 3. f Ibid., xxvi. 13. 



l6o THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

is completely merged in that of doctrine : it is the 
most arbitrary, the most audaciously subjective criti- 
cism that could be conceived. The first two chapters 
of the third gospel are omitted. Marcion sets aside 
the account of the baptism of Jesus, of His temp- 
tations, His genealogy, and a multitude of sayings 
which refer to the bond between the two covenants, 
and represent the manifestation of Jesus as the ful- 
filment of prophecy. The parable of the vine, which 
speaks of the prophets as the precursors of the Son ; 
the teaching which ascribes to divine justice the falling 
of the Tower of Siloam ; the triumphal entry into 
Jerusalem ; the agony in Gethsemane, and the Ascen- 
sion ; all these are rejected for preconceived reasons. 
The same system of elimination is applied to points 
of detail. Thus, Marcion will not recognise the appeal 
of Jesus to the example of Jonas and of the Queen 
of Sheba (Luke xi. 30-33) ; or His words reproaching 
the Jews with having shed the blood of the prophets 
(xi. 47) ; or His invocation of the testimony of Moses 
to the resurrection of the dead (xx. 37) ; or His allu- 
sions to the Passover (xxii. 15, 16) ; or to the twelve 
tribes of Israel (xxii. 30). He would also, without 
scruple, entirely change anything that was offensive to 
him in the fragments preserved. He modified in the 
following manner the declarations of the Lord as 
to the immutability of the law (Luke xvi. 17) : 
" Heaven and earth shall pass away, as shall also the 
law and the prophets, but not one jot or tittle of my 
words shall fail." These examples suffice to justify 
Tertullian's assertion with regard to Marcion : " He 
suppressed all that was contrary to his opinion, and 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. l6l 

retained only that which was in harmony with it." 
If he did not always succeed in logically carrying 
out his idea, this slight inconsistency in no way 
affects the general and dominant fact.* 

The apocryphal gospels which we have just men- 
tioned were for the most part simply falsifications of 
our canonical gospels. Like the false colours with 
which some master-pieces of painting have been over- 
laid, they were quickly to disappear under the influence 
of time. The productions of heresy, which were not 
mere parasitic overgrowths, were to be more durable. 
The creation offered more resistance to the destroy- 
ing hand of time when the canvas had been care- 
fully fabricated as well as the design upon it.f We 
have in this class first a curious gospel ascribed to 
Thomas, which is based entirely on the docetist 
stand-point. I It treats of the childhood of Jesus, 
and so piles up prodigies in that period of His life, 
that it is altogether withdrawn from the laws of 
gradual and truly human development. The child 

* All the fragments of the Gospel of Marcion are found collected 
in De Wette's " Introduction to the New Testament." See Bleck's 
treatment of the same subject ("Einlant. in N. T.," p. 122 and 
following). M. Nicolas (" Evan, apocr.," p. 147 and following) 
concludes, as we think, erroneously, from some inconsistencies of 
Marcion, that he did not change the Gospel of Luke to suit his 
own school. 

f For the apocryphal gospels, the reader is referred to the 
collection published by Tischendorf (" Evang. apocryph.," Leipzig, 
1853). See also Thilo, " Codex apocryph. N. T.," Leipzig, 1832. 

I The antiquity of the Gospel of Thomas is beyond question. 
It is mentioned in Irenaeus, " Adv. H^res.," i. 17. See Origen, 
" Homil. I. in Lucam." "Scio evangeHum quod appellatur secun- 
dum Thomam." See also " Phil.," vol. vii. p. 141. We cite this 
Gospel according to Tischendorf ("Evang. apocryph.," Leipzig, 
1853). He gives three manuscripts — two Greek and one Latin. 

12 



l63 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Jesus is a sort of capricious and all-powerful genius, 
who deals with matter as He will, and multiplies 
miracles to gratify His anger or His fancy. For ex- 
ample. He gives life to little clay figures of birds 
which He has amused Himself by making, and they 
take wing and fly away. He destroys as easily as 
He creates. A child falls down stark dead, because 
he has jumped upon Christ's shoulders. Another 
turns aside the little water channels which Jesus 
has been hollowing out in play, and his hand is at 
once dried up in punishment of his daring. These 
chastisements again call for fresh miracles, for Jesus 
consents to undo the work of His own revenge, and 
raises to life again those whom He had killed. His 
chief characteristic is an implacable spirit. Thus 
the inhabitants of Nazareth come to Joseph and 
say : — '' With such a child, thou canst not dwell in 
the same town with us, unless thou teach Him to 
bless instead of cursing, for he slays our children."* 
This not unreasonable remonstrance is roughly re- 
buked. The miraculous power of the Divine child 
is displayed on the most trifling occasions. If He 
goes to draw water for His mother, He brings it back 
in the skirt of His garment. He has no need of 
tools in order to plane the planks of which a yoke 
is to be made in Joseph's workshop; and when He 
sows His father's field, the crop is so abundant that 
He can feed all the poor of the place. But the 
prodigy most insisted on in the Gospel of Thomas 
is the marvellous wisdom of the child, who instructs 

* Xv TOiovTOV TTaLdiov £%wv ov dvvaaai. ^e9' r/fiCJv olkhv. ("Evang. 
Thomas.," A, c. 4.) 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 163 

all his masters, and chastises them without mercy, 
when they do not yield to Him. Thus is formed 
in the popular legend the notion of a terrible child- 
Christ, whom none but His mother can appease. 
The first of His masters is called Zaccheus. He is 
anxious to teach the boy all that childhood should 
know, and seeks to instil, as his first lesson, 
respect for old age. But the result proves that it 
is he who needs to be instructed. When the child 
questions him upon the meaning of the first letter 
of the alphabet, he is silent. '' Thou knowest not 
the nature of the Alpha," says Jesus to him, 
"and how then canst thou teach others the Beta?"* 
These words indicate to us the origin of this 
gospel, for they betray the influence of the famous 
Gnostic Marcus. It is known that he based his 
incoherent system on a symbolical explanation of 
the letters of the alphabet. Nothing could more 
favour the development of the chimeras of Gnosti- 
cism than this atmosphere of the pseudo-marvellous, 
which took away from the childhood of Jesus all 
human reality, and made him descend from Heaven 
as a pure ray of light and power enshrouded in an 
earthly form. Beholding His miracles, the inhabi- 
tants of Nazareth exclaim: ''This child is not 
made like one of us, for He can subdue even fire. 
He was before the creation of the world. What • 
sublime being is He then ? a God or an angel ? He 
is a heavenly child. Whence is it that every word 
spoken by Him becomes at once an act?"t 

* 2v TO d\(pa fxr/ ei8ajg Kara ^vaiv, to jSrJTU ttCjq oXXovq diSdaiCHQ. 
(" Evang. Thomae.," A, c. 6.) 

t OvTOQ TL fikya ioTiv rj dyyikoQ. (Ibid., A, C. 7.) 
12 * 



164 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

We find in the title of one of the editions of this 
curious writing this very significant saying : " As Jesus 
was in his body at Nazareth."* This is pure docetism. 

Heresy has found a still more congenial soil in 
the legendary accounts of the apostles than in the 
apocryphal gospels. The substance of these narra- 
tives was in existence antecedently to heresy, and 
co-ordinately with it, as we may know from the 
" Apostolic Acts," the falsification of which cannot 
be laid to its account. It is even probable that 
it has only added a few bold touches. Chris- 
tian antiquity charged these falsifications on a 
Gnostic named Lucius Charinus, who lived on the 
borders of the second or- third century, but whose 
particular school of doctrine is unknown.! The 
falsifications for which he is held responsible can- 
not be all from his hand. Grave and numerous as 
they were, and condemned officially by the Church, 
they nevertheless exercised a great influence upon 
it, silently preparing the way for the triumph of 
more than one error and superstition. The "Apos- 
tolic Acts " most obviously accepted, or modified by 
the Gnostic and Manichagan heresies, were ''The 
Acts of Andrew and Matthew," " The Martyrdom 
of Matthew, and " The Acts of Thomas." The first- 
named do not bear the impress of any particular 
system ; they belong rather to the category of popular 

* 'AvaaTpi(p6iJievoQ (Tw/iariKw^ kv iroKei '^alapkr. (" Evang. Thomse," 
B, I.) 

f In actibus conscriptis a Leucio. August. " De Actis cum 
Felice Manich.," ii. 6. Photius, " Bibliotheca. Codex.," 114. On 
the great number of these apocryphal acts, see Eusebius, " H. E.," 
iii. 25 ; Epiphanius, " Hsres.," 61. We quote from Tischendorf, 
" Acta apostol. apocrypha." 1851. 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 165 

legends, which have contributed directly to the for- 
mation of oral tradition. " The Acts of Andrew and 
of Matthew " turn on the mission of these two 
apostles among the '* Anthropophagi."* The narra- 
tive, which is a tissue of gross fables, concludes 
with the description of the martyrdom of Andrew, 
tortured at once by demons and Anthropophagi, 
who finally decapitate him. Every bleeding shred 
of his flesh becomes a living tree. The murder- 
ous city is engulfed in floods of water, and is only 
saved by a speedy repentance. Andrew raises the 
dead and builds a temple on this inhospitable shore. 
Among other strange miracles, it is recorded that 
the very sphinxes poured forth from their stony 
mouths anthems of praise to Christ. That which 
is more serious in this ridiculous writing, and that 
which gained it so much favour among the Gnostics, 
was its account of the manifold transformations of 
Jesus, who appears now under the form of a ship's 
captain, to command Andrew to rejoin Matthew, 
now under the form of a little child. t His incar- 
nation is thus placed on a par with the fanciful 
metamorphoses of Indian mythology, which all tend 
to sustain docetism. " The Martyrdom of Matthew " 
presents the same characteristics, only more pro- 
nounced. J Jesus Christ appears to His apostle as 

. ^- The "Acts of Andrew and Matthew" belong to the same 
period as those of Andrew, mentioned by Eusebius and Epiphanius 
(" loc. cit.'"'). The Gnostics and the Manichaeans made use 
of them. 

t ■'Hv wfTTTfp dvOpujTrog Trpojpevg. (" Acts of Andrew and Mat- 
thew," c. 5.) 

I The " Acts and Martyrdom of Matthew " are the continua- 
tion of the "Acts of Andrew and Matthew." 



l66 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

an angel from Paradise, and speaks to him in the 
language of very decided Gnosticism, with a voice 
soft as the myrrh of love. " I am," he says, " Para- 
dise, the Paraclete, the representative of the heavenly 
powers, the strength of men of chastity, the crown 
of virgins, the foundation of the Church."* Trans- 
cendent asceticism is thus glorified with a mys- 
tical exaltation. Matthew lives by mortification ; 
he fasts during forty days before setting forth on 
his mission, which is to plant the tree of life in 
the city of the Anthropophagi. These savages have 
no sooner eaten of it than they become civilized 
and cover their nakedness; they are baptized in the 
fountain which springs from the foot of the sacred 
tree, around which cling the branches of a vine. 
Clearly the whole narrative had a symbolic mean- 
ing. The martyrdom of Matthew, who falls a victim 
to the wrath of the savage king, is described 
with great detail. The fire which is to consume, 
falls as dew over the apostle, but is transformed 
into a furious dragon to devour his enemies. The 
apostle succilmbs in the end, but his body and his 
garments are unharmed, and the sick who touch his 
bed are healed. t 

The " Acts of Thomas " transport us into that mys- 
terious land of India, to which Gnosticism was ever 
drawn as to its cradle.^ The preaching of the Apostle 
Thomas there is indeed useless, for the Christianity 

* 'H dvvajxig riov av(o SvvaroJv lyio, 6 (TT&cpavot; ru)v 7rap6&vu)v. ("Acts 

and Martyrdom of Matthew," 2.) 

f *A\pafi£voi fiovov TTjQ KkivriQ hwOricrav. (Ibid,, 23.) 

I Their antiquity is not questioned. (Eusebius, " H. E.," iii. 25 ; 

Epiphanius, " Haeres.," 61.) 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 167 

which he proclaims is worthy of the Brahmins and 
the disciples of Buddah ; it is a stream which flows 
back to its source. Thomas has received his mission 
from Jesus Christ. Faithful to his character, he first 
declines it through lack of faith, but afterwards sets 
out disguised as a carpenter, having hired himself 
to a servant of the king of the town of Gundaphora, 
who is seeking workmen from all parts to build him 
a palace. Thomas, as soon as he lands upon the 
Indian continent, enters, with his companion, a town 
where a feast is being held. It is the celebration of 
the marriage of the king's daughter. According to 
the customs of oriental hospitality, all who arrive are 
bidden to the feast. Thomas refuses to conform to the 
pagan customs of the country ; a servant strikes him 
on the face, and is immediately after devoured by a 
lion, when he goes to draw water from the stream. A 
flute-player, a Jewess by birth, appears at the close 
of the feast. She alone understands the symbolic 
hymn sung by Thomas to the praise of the bride. The 
young spouse is, in the eyes of the apostle, the per- 
sonification of that feminine element which plays so 
important a part in the Gnostic systems, and which 
is confounded in them with the Holy Spirit. He cele- 
brates her beauty in the strain of a hierophant, making 
her the type of the mysteries of the Pleroma. He 
compared the slopes of her neck to the lower steps of 
the scale of emanations. Her two hands represent the 
choir of happy ^ons. The number of the friends of 
the bride and bridegroom has also a symbolic meaning, 
recalling the use of the Hehdomas and Ogdoas in Gnos- 
ticism. Thomas sees, in their evolutions, the eternal 



1 68 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

cycle of the ^ons, when they drink the mystic wine 
which quenches all thirst and hunger, and when they 
celebrate the father of truth and the mother of 
wisdom.* 

We must not expect to find in this song the pre- 
cision of a system, but its general tone is obviously 
mystic. Thomas, solicited by the king to bless the 
young pair upon the threshold of their nuptial cham- 
ber, preaches absolute asceticism to them in words 
which are the echo of the Buddhist precepts. He 
pronounces a woe upon marriage, which produces only 
suffering, vice, and death ; and he persuades the young 
man and woman to be content with a purely spiritual 
union, t The next day the parents of the bride ask 
her the reason of the joy which beams in her face. 
** I have refused," she says, " the work of shame and 
ignominy." The young man thanks Thomas for hav- 
ing revealed to him the mystery of his being, and 
rendered him capable of becoming again what he was 
before his descent into the region of matter and of 
change. The king seeks out the fatal magician who 
has turned the wedding feast for him into a bitter 
mourning ; but the apostle has already quitted this 
barbarous shore. He soon reaches his destination, 
and practises the severest asceticism, eating only rice 
bread and drinking nothing but water. 

Charged by the King of Gundaphora to build him 
a palace, he receives for that purpose large sums of 
gold and silver, but he hastens to distribute them 
among the poor. When the king comes to inspect 

* Tbv TTarepa Tr]g dXrjOdag Kal rijv [xrjHpa tTiq aofpiag. (" ActS of 
Thomas," p. 7.) 

•f '^av aTTaWayijrt Trjg pvrrapdg KoiV(x)viag Tairrjg. (Ibid,, 12.) 



BOOK I.— THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 



169 



the new building, he finds only the bare ground. " I 
have built thy palace in heaven," says Thomas.* This 
palace of charity seems to the king a poor substitute 
for the pillars of marble and gold which he had thought 
to dwell amongst. He casts the apostle into prison 
till he shall ascertain whether this palace of charity 
has any real existence. The soul of his brother appears 
to him, to ask him for a place in the celestial mansion 
to which the angels had carried him immediately after 
his death. The king then understands that the 
apostle had given him a dwelling far preferable to 
that which he had desired. t Nothing could embody 
more distinctly than this legend the idea of a purely 
external method of salvation, since it was made the 
reward of almsgiving that was not even intended. It 
is on this very same principle that pious endowments 
have been lavishly made by princes whose names 
are sullied by the darkest crimes. It was convenient 
to them to build a mansion in the heavens with the 
fruit of their rapacious robberies on earth. In none 
of the discourses of Thomas, moreover, do we find any 
trace of the doctrine of redemption. The great essen- 
tial is a knowledge of the mysteries and the practice 
of asceticism. Exaggerated importance is attached 
to baptism and the anointing with oil. The baptismal 
formula is modified to suit the Gnostic sense. The 
apostle says to the neophyte : '' May there come upon 
thee the name of Christ, which is above every name ; 
may there come upon thee the power of the Most High 
and His perfect mercy ; may there come upon thee the 
sublime anointing and the compassionate mother ; 

* "Acts of Thomas," 20, 21. f Ibid., 23-25. 



170 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

may there come upon thee the economy of the male, 
the revelation of the hidden mysteries, the mother of 
the seven abodes, who shall give thee the repose of 
the eighth."* We trace here the syzygies or couples 
of the emanation theory, the Hebdomas, the Ogdoas — 
in a word, all the complicated and confused techni- 
calities of Gnosticism. The " Acts of Thomas " enrich 
Christian mythology with a vast number of fanciful 
prodigies wrought by the apostle : he seems to try 
to rival the magicians of India. He interlards his 
raisings of the dead with ascetic discourses, which 
issue in the celebration of baptism according to the 
rites of heresy. The Lord's Supper assumes the same 
character. The stress laid upon the material element 
is very significant. The bread of the Eucharist is 
fashioned into the form of a cross. t The baptismal 
water is impregnated with a Divine virtue, which im- 
parts to it a purifying influence. " Come," says the 
apostle, ''come, healing force, and dwell in these wa- 
ters, and let the anointing of the Holy Spirit be thus 
realised in them."! The Holy Spirit is always likened 
to the feminine element ; it is the mystic dove, which 
brings rest to the soul by the revelation of the great 
mysteries. The abode of the dead is described by one 
raised from the grave in the most gloomy colours. The 
account of the death of the apostle is treated in that 
symbolic manner which found so much favour with 
the Gnostics. The four soldiers who led him to his 

* 'E\0£ i] fxrjTTjp ri ev(77r\ayxvog' l\6e rj oiKovofiia tov dpcrevog' eX9l t) 
TO. nvarrjpia cnvoKakvirTOvaa ra airoKpvcpa. (" Acts of Thomas.," 27,) 

f Aie^apa^f t(^ dpn}) tov aravpov. (fbid., 47.) 

X 'H dvfiaiJLiQ TTiQ au}Tr]piaQ IXOt Kai rTict]Vio(Tov iv roTg vSacxt tovtoiq, 'iva 
TO xapitTjLia TOV dyiov TrvtvixaTOQ TeXeicjg iv avrolg TsXeiwOy. (Ibid., 49.) 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 171 

torture are compared to the four elements.* The dust 
in which his body is laid works great miracles.! This 
curious writing shows us Gnostic heresy emerging 
from the clouds of metaphysics, and endeavouring to 
arrive at a tangible and attractive form for diseased 
imaginations. 

Heresy did not fail to invent revelations, of which 
it made Adam,! Abraham, or Elijah to be the 
medium. It also assigned some of its prophetic wri- 
tings to Zoroaster. § The names only of these apoca- 
lypses have come down to us. Mention is further made 
of an Apocalypse of Cerinthus.|| Lastly, we may cite a 
kind of half Jewish, half Gnostic apocalypse, entitled 
*'The Rapture of Isaiah, "H and composed of several 
parts, of which the dates vary. The oldest portion 
treats of the vision with which the prophet was 
honoured in the presence of King Hezekiah. The 
glory of heaven is suddenly revealed to him ; he falls 

"^ " Consummatio Thomas," 6. f Ibid,, 11. 

I Epiphanius, " Haeres.," xxvi. 8, 6 ; xxxix. 5, 7. 

§ Porphyry, " Vita Plotini/' 16. 1| Eusebius, " H. E.," iii. 28. 

IT The title, of this curious apocalypse is 'kvatariKt) opaaig 'Rcraiov. 
It consists of two distinct parts, of which the first (chap. i. to v.) is 
the least ancient ; for the state of the Church therein referred to 
only existed subsequent to the Council of Nice. It comprehends 
the narrative of the appearing of Isaiah at the court of Hezekiah, 
to denounce the impiety of Manasseh, and then records the perse- 
cution of which he is the object, and his martyrdom. This frag- 
ment is probably based on a Jewish apocryphal writing. The 
second part, the Latin translation of which was found in Venice by 
Cardinal Mai, relates the translation of Isaiah into heaven. It 
clearly shows the influence of Gnosticism, Epiphanius refers to it 
[" Hseres,," xl. 2). See also Origen (" Homil. i. in Isaiah," 5). 
The second fragment dates from the third century. The entire 
rvork, discovered in Ethiopian, was translated into English, and 
published by Laurence (1829). See Lucke "Offenbar. des Johann," 
i. p. 274 and following. 



172 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

speechless and overwhelmed before the splendours of 
the Invisible. He traverses the seven heavens which 
are above the earth. With the exception of the first, 
which is Hades, and the last, which is the abode of 
the Most High, they all present the same spectacle. 
In the centre is a throne, on which an archangel is 
seated, and on either side the angels stand in pairs, 
an arrangement which recalls at once the Valentinian 
Syzygies. In the seventh heaven God dwells with 
His well-beloved Son and with the Holy Spirit. 
He gives His Son the command to pass through all 
the heavens, assuming in each the form of the angel 
whose abode it is. Finally He is to appear on earth 
in the form of a man, born of the Virgin Mary, there 
to perform great miracles, to be rejected and crucified 
by the Jews, then to return to the seventh heaven, and 
sit down at the Father's right hand. This vision is evi- 
dently strongly tinged with docetism. The Christ does 
not assume humanity in any more real sense than He 
has assumed the nature of the angels in His successive 
metamorphoses. The vision of Isaiah is preceded in 
the Ethiopian book in which these fragments are 
preserved, by an account of that which took place at 
the court of Hezekiah when the prophet announced 
to the king the shameful fall of his son Manasseh. 
The pious monarch was only prevented from sacrificing 
his successor by the intercessions of Isaiah. Never- 
theless, Manasseh vowed deadly hatred to the prophet ; 
and on the instigation of the demon whom he obeyed, 
he caused Isaiah to be seized upon the mountain of 
Bethlehem, and commanded that he should be put to 
death for his sinister predictions to Hezekiah of the 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. I73 

future of the world and of Manasseh himself. The 
visions of the prophet contain an entire apocalypse, 
which traces the ministry, the death, resurrection, 
and glorious ascension of Jesus Christ, who is described 
under the name of the well-beloved. The triumphs of 
the apostolate are described at length; they are to 
be followed by a period of decadence in the Church ; 
the Holy Spirit will depart, and there will be no more 
faith in the sacred oracles. The demon will descend 
from the firmament in the person of Nero, and will 
receive as antichrist the adoration of the earth, till 
the well-beloved shall descend from the seventh heaven 
and destroy the empire of Satan. The reign of the 
just and the last judgment are the conclusion of this 
vision, which belongs evidently to the fourth century, 
and does not come therefore within our limits. 



§ II. The Apocrypha not positively hereticaL 

Let us give a rapid enumeration of the apocryphal 
writings which hover between heresy and orthodoxy. 

We have, in the first place, a very curious writing, 
entitled " The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs," 
which, in spite of its Judseo-Christian character, does 
not bear any of the marks of heresy.* The sons of 
Jacob are shown us each on his death-bed, in the pro- 
phetic hour when the future unveils itself before the 
gaze of the dying patriarch. Each of them in turn 

"^ "The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs" is found in the 
" Spicilegium" of Grabe, vol. i. p. 145 and following. It dates from 
the second century. Origen quotes it repeatedly. (" Comment, in 
Genesis," ad cap. i. v. 14. Huet edition, vol. ii. p. 15.) 



174 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

takes the last farewell of his children. All these dis- 
courses have a strong similarity, and pass from moral 
exhortation to prophecy. These prophetic words all 
have reference to the glorious descendant of the holy 
race, to whom the world will owe its salvation. His 
divinity. His oneness with God, are asserted with 
perfect clearness. He is hailed as the offspring of 
Judah and Levi, the heir at once of the kingship 
and the priesthood. " God," it is .said, '' will raise up 
the priest in the tribe of Levi, the king in the tribe 
of Judah. He will be at once God and man ; His 
priesthood will be exercised in all nations, and will be 
a new priesthood."* The idea of redemption is stili 
very vague in this writing, which confines itself tc 
declaring that the wicked shall be stopped in theii 
impiety, when the righteous shall rest in Christ. t It 
presents none of the extravagances of the apocryphal 
literature, though it bears a very decided impress of 
asceticism. It does not merely forbid incontinence ; it 
enjoins that a man should not touch a woman. I 

It is curious to find in the "Testament of the Twelve 
Patriarchs " the theocratic idea of the middle ages, 
expressed in the very same terms employed by such 
men as Gregory VII. and Innocent III. " The Lord," 
says Judah, ''has given to me the kingdom, and to 
Levi the priesthood, and He has placed the kingdom in 
subjection to the priestly power. He has given to me 
the things of earth, and to him the things of heaven. 
As the heaven is higher than the earth, so the divine 

* UoLTjaei updretav vkav. (Grabe, p. 1 64.) 

f Oi dvofxoi KaTarravaovcnv cXq KaKa. Oi ce SiKaiOL KaraTravaovaiv Iv 
avT<^. (Ibid., p. 172.^ 

X <^v\dlai TCLQ alaQnatiQ dnb Trcie^g OrjXeiag. (Ibid., p. 1 5 1.) 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 175 

priesthood is higher than the kinghood.* The ''Testa- 
ment of the Twelve Patriarchs" proclaims the destruc- 
tion of Judaism, and in the end of time the triumphant 
return of Christ, the universal resurrection, the con- 
demnation of the wicked, and the reign of the saints, 
that is, of those who have been poor and afflicted in 
this present life.f Although it draws its inspiration 
from the book of Enoch, from which it makes many 
quotations, it is free from the excesses of millenarian 
materialism. 

The two oldest narratives of the Gospel history 
belonging to the category of the apocrypha, and 
not tainted with heresy, are the '* Protevangel of 
James"! and the ''Acts of Pilate." The latter consists 
of two distinct parts : the one treats of the scenes in the 
pretorium, the other describes the descent of Jesus into 
hell. These two parts do not bear the same date ; the 
first is earlier than the second, though both belong to a 
remote Christian antiquity. They were subsequently 
put together under the name of the " Gospel of Nico- 
demus.§ The "Protevangel of James" narrates the 
circumstances which preceded the birth of Mary, the 

* Grabe, p. 186. f Ibid., p. 188. 

I Justin Martyr alludes to the ''Protevangel of James" (" Dial. 
cum Tryph,," c. 78): he has at least borrowed from it the incident of 
the birth of Jesus in a cavern. Origen (in Matt. vol. x. 17, vol. iii. 
462) actually mentions this apocrypha. 

§The "Acts of Pilate" come before the "Descensus ad inferos." 
The two writings are always separated in old MSS. The same 
facts are differently narrated in them. Then the words of the thief 
upon the cross are not the same in both. (Tischendorf, "Prole- 
gomena," p. 56.) The name of Nicodemus, given to the completion 
of these two writings, dates from the middle ages. We have two 
editions of the " Acts of Pilate." The first is the oldest. Justin 
Martyr quotes from it directly. (" Apol./' i. 35 ; i. 48. See also Ter- 
tuUian, "Apol.," 21.) 



176 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

mother of Christ. The narrative is a parody on the 
birth of John the Baptist. Joachim and Anna, two 
pious Israelites advanced in years, are made, by the 
special favour of God, fruitful in their hoar age.* This 
miracle is the foreshadowing of the high destiny await- 
ing the child, who is none other than Mary. She grows 
up like a lily beneath the shadow of the altar, in the 
midst of young companions pure as herself. She is the 
favourite of the priests, who watch over her education 
till the day of her marriage. In order to ascertain to 
whom she is to be entrusted, the high priest assembles a 
number of pious Israelites. A white dove springs from 
the rod of the old carpenter Joseph, who is marked out 
by this miraculous sign as the chaste guardian of the 
young virgin.! The annunciation takes place as in the 
Gospel. The circumstances of the birth of Christ are 
borrowed from St. Luke, with this difference, that Mary 
brings forth the divine Child in a cavern and not in a 
stable. The sole design of the narrative is to give 
emphasis to the dignity and virginity of Mary. We 
have in it the first attempt to draw her out of the wise 
obscurity in which she is enveloped in the canonical 
Gospels, an attempt characterised by the asceticism 
which pervades all the sacred legends. 

The apocryphal Gospels of the following age, such as 
the ''Pseudo-Matthew;" the ''Coptic Gospel of the 
carpenter Joseph;" the "Arabic Gospel of the Child- 
hood of Mary," and lastly that of the Nativity, enlarge 
upon those of the earlier period, and exalt more and 
more the part assigned to the mother of Jesus. We 
mention them only to show in what direction the 
* "Protevang. Jacobi," c. 6. f Ibid., c. 9. 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 177 

Christian legend was tending from its very first essay 
in the "Protevangel of James." 

The "Acts of Pilate" do not bear the stamp of any 
particular school. The anonymous writers endeavour 
to make the Jews, Christ's contemporaries, also His 
apologists. His trial before the Roman proconsul is 
expanded by the addition of a multitude of details. 
The sick whom he has healed appear at the bar of the 
tribunal, and one after another make their depositions 
in His favour, relating what He has done for them. 
His resurrection is afterwards established by the tes- 
timony of the soldiers placed as a guard around the 
sepulchre, and further by the witness of Joseph of 
Arimathea, to whom Christ appeared in the prison into 
which the Jews had thrown him, and from which he 
was delivered by miracle. This outline is filled up in 
a very ingenious manner. It is just possible that some 
true incidents of the trial of Jesus may have been pre- 
served by tradition, but it is impossible to distinguish 
with any certainty the true from the false. Nicodemus 
plays in all these scenes the part of the impartial judge 
— the character assigned to him in the fourth Gospel. 
The second part of this curious writing is occupied with 
the events that took place in the abode of the dead, 
during Christ's descent into it. This narrative is as- 
cribed to the two sons of the aged Simeon, who came 
out of their tombs in the train of the risen Redeemer. 
While hell and its king are confounded and crushed 
beneath the foot of the Redeemer, the saints of the old 
covenant hail Him with rapture ; each one of them, 
from Adam to John the Baptist, recognising Him as 
the long-expected object of their hope. The great pro- 

13 



178 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

phets repeat in His presence their most sublime oracles, 
in order to show how in Him all are fulfilled. All the 
scenes of the invisible world are described in strains of 
glowing grandeur, almost Dantesque. The writing 
closes with a juridical comparison made by Pilate be- 
tween the sacred writings of the Old Testament and 
the events which have just taken place at Jerusalem. 
This is the legal apology ; the question of Christianity 
is debated after the fashion of an ordinary law case. 

The legends relating to the apostles have obtained 
no less credit in the Church than those bearing on the 
life of Jesus. The *'Acts of Peter and Paul" must 
have been written shortly after the *' Clementines," for 
their object is to bring into prominence the radical 
agreement between the two apostles, and their common 
opposition to Simon Magus. Thus are exposed the 
false inventions by which St. Paul had been identified 
with Simon, and both sacrificed to Peter, for the honour 
and glory of Essenian Judaeo-Christianity.* Peter is 
said to have preceded Paul to Rome. The latter was 
on his way to the capital of the empire. There he 
arrived, in spite of the prohibition which Nero had 
issued in consequence of the intrigues of the Jews, who 
had found an auxiliary in Simon Magus. The father 
of heresy undertakes to confound the disciples of Christ 
by his sorceries, and to demonstrate that he is the very 
Son of God, the incarnation of truth. An imposing 
spectacle is prepared. The magician causes a funeral 
pile to be raised, from the top of which he promises to 
rise into the arms of the angels. The emperor, who 

* The '^Acts of Peter and Paul" are quoted in Eusebius, "H.E.," 
iii. 3. 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 179 

devoutly preaches brotherly love to the apostles and 
Simon, presides on the occasion. It ends in the con- 
fusion of the impostor, w^ho, by the aid of demons, does 
indeed rise at first into the air, but is speedily preci- 
pitated to the earth at the word of Peter. Religious 
truth is thus staked upon an idle prodigy. Everything 
hinges on the marvellous ; he who can do the boldest 
stroke is vindicated against his adversaries. The "Acts 
of Peter and Paul" mark out Peter as the first of the 
apostles.* The bread of the Eucharist is represented 
in this work as possessing magical virtue, for it is 
merely shown to the furious dogs let loose upon Peter by 
Simon, and they are instantly tamed. t The writing 
concludes with the martyrdom of Paul and of Peter. It 
contains in its original form the beautiful legend of the 
quo vadisy which we have already quoted in a previous 
volume. 

The ''Acts of Paul and Thekla" date from the 
second century.]: This is the romance of asceticism. 
The apostle in the course of his missionary travels 
arrives in Iconia, accompanied by Demas, who is 
already playing the part of a traitor. Paul's appearance 
is minutely described. He is low in stature, bald, and 
bent : sadness is the prevailing expression of his fea- 
tures, though they are also full of a heavenly sweet- 
ness. § Like Thomas in India, he preaches asceticism. 
"Happy," says he, "are they who have kept their body 
undefiled." His gospel is called the gospel of vir- 

* 'Ah\(pe Usrpov rov Trpwrov roJv CLTroaToXoJV. ("ActS of Peter and 
Paul," c. 5.) f Ibid., c. 48. 

I The "Acts of Paul and Thekla" are quoted by Tertullian 
(" De baptismo," 17). See St. Jerome, " De script, eccles.," c. 7. 

§ Ibid., c. 2. 

13 * 



l80 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

ginity.* He makes Thekla, the daughter of his host$, a 
convert to his views. Dragged before the magistrates 
by the father of the young Christian, he openly avows 
his doctrine, and assigns a far more important place to 
asceticism than to redemption in the work of Jesus 
Christ. Compelled to evade punishment by a hasty 
flight, he is soon joined in his retreat by Thekla, who 
follows him ''as a lamb follows the shepherd. "t The 
young girl is herself brought before the judges. Con- 
demned to be burned, the flames refuse to touch her. 
Paul consents to baptise her. Again menaced at 
Antioch, she finds shelter with a woman of the city, 
who has seen in a dream the soul of her daughter ap- 
pearing to her, and asking her to protect the Christian 
virgin, who, by her prayers, will bring her to heaven. t 
Thus, according to this legend, the intercession of saints 
opens the gates of Paradise. Thekla has other adven- 
tures no less marvellous. The fierce beasts to whom 
she has been thrown come and lick her feet in the 
circus ; and at Seleucia, where she lives as an anchorite, 
a rock opens to hide her from the brutal attacks of 
licentious pagans. Thekla is the anticipated glorifica- 
tion of conventual virginity. 

The " Acts of Andrew " found much favour with the 
heretics, § though they did not, any more than those 
of which we have been speaking, owe their authorship 
to them. They narrate the missions of the Apostle 

* MaKapioi 01 dyvijv Ttjv capKa TrjprjpavTeg. ("De script, eccles.," 
C. 5.) Tov Ttjg TrapOeviaQ \6yov. (Ibid., 7.) 

f 'Qg d/xvog ev iprjin^ tov Troifikva. (The " ActS of Paul and 
Thekla," 21.) 

X "Iva ev^TjTai Trepl fjnov Kal fxeraTeQio dg tov tCjv SiKalojv tottov. 
(Ibid., 28.) 

§ Eusebius, " H. E.," iii. 25 ; Epiphanius, " H^eres," xlvii. i. 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. l8l 

Andrew in the proconsulate of Achaia, and his appearing 
before the pagan tribunal. Christianity assumes, undei 
his presentation of it, a purely material guise. He 
makes the cross of Calvary the material opposite to 
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and is thus 
led to speak of the cross in terms of the most abject 
superstition.* When the apostle himself is crucified, 
he addresses the instrument of his torture in the 
language of ecstasy. " I hail thee, O cross !" he ex- 
claims, " thee whom the body of Christ has conse- 
crated, and whom His limbs adorned like precious 
jewels ! I come to thee without fear, that thou mayest 
receive me with joy, me, the disciple of the Crucified. 
O blessed cross, on whom the wounded body of the 
Lord has set such beauty, I have ardently desired and 
earnestly sought thee. Receive me out of the throng of 
men, and present me to thy Master, so that through thee, 
He who has purified may take me to Himself !"t The 
sacrament of the Lord's Supper is also represented 
in such a manner as to foster the growth of all later 
superstitions. "Every day," says Andrew, "I offer 
a sacrifice, but no more with the smoke of incense 
and the blood of slain bulls or goats. No. I offer day 
by day the spotless Lamb upon the altar of the cross. 
His body is truly eaten and His blood truly drunk by 
His people."! Andrew dies, like Stephen, in a holy 
ecstasy. His ashes are carefully gathered up, while 
the proconsul who has condemned him to death is 
cast down from the top of a rock. 

* " Acts of Andrew," chap. v. f Ibid., chap. x. 

X "AjiMfiov ajxvov Ka9' kKaarqv rjj^dpav iv ti^ 6v(na(TTr]pi(^ rov (rravpov 
upovpyiov, d\7]9iog to aoJjjLa avrov napa rov Xaoii j3i€poj<TKirai kuI to aifxa 
avTou) ofLo'noQ TTLveTai. (Ibid., chap, vi.) 



l82 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The '^ Acts of St. John " bear probably the same 
date as those of Andrew.* They place before us the 
Emperor Domitian, who, on the denunciation of the 
Jews, opens the fire of persecution upon the Christians. 
Having heard that John proclaimed the end of the 
Roman empire and the inauguration of a new reign, 
he sought him out at Ephesus. His inquiries only 
elicited a repetition of his prophecies as to the coming 
of the Saviour. To accredit his oracles, the apostle 
drinks a cup of mortal poison and feels no ill effects : 
a like potion kills, before the eyes of the emperor, 
another unhappy man, whom John at once restores 
to life. John is banished to Patmos, whence he returns 
to Ephesus before his death, and commits the charge 
of his church to Polycarp. The divinity of Christ 
occupies a large place in his last discourses. Asceti- 
cism is also highly exalted. The dying apostle lays 
himself down in his tomb, from which there springs 
a fountain of living water, the faithful figure of the 
immortal youth of his teaching.! We may cite, last 
of all, the "Acts of Thaddeus," which bear a strong 
Jewish impress. They contain the letter in which 
Abgar, King of Edessa, asks Jesus to cure him of a 
mortal malady. Eusebius gives, in his history, a 
similar letter, with the supposed reply of Jesus Christ. J 
The tradition which forms the basis of the "Acts 

'•' Eusebius, "H.E.," iii. 25 ; Epiphanius, "Haeres.," xlvii. i. 

•f- "Acts of John," chap. xxii. The other apocryphal "Acts," 
published by Tischendorf, do not belong to the period before us. 
Neither the "Acts of Barnabas" nor those of Philip are men- 
tioned by Eusebius. The " Acts of Bartholomew " are also of a 
later date. The mythical and melodramatic element acquires a 
growing ascendency. 

I Eusebius, " H. E.," i. 13. 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 183 

of Thaddeus " is therefore very ancient, and indicates 
the desire felt by the Christians to have a document 
written by the hand of Jesus. The legendary story 
of the healing of Abgar, by means of the image of 
Christ impressed upon the handkerchief with which 
he wiped the drops from his brow, belongs to a much 
later date. The pretended missions of Thaddeus to 
Edessa and into Mesopotamia, as also the fable of the 
first appearing of Jesus Christ to his mother, supposed 
to be antecedent to all the rest, are inventions of a 
still more modern date. 

Several apocryphal epistles came into circulation 
in the course of the second century, among others, 
an epistle to the Laodiceans, and a correspondence 
between St. Paul and Seneca ; but they do not present 
any doctrinal speciality. The apocryphal apocalypses 
have been recently published.* Two of these are of 
high Christian antiquity, though their precise date 
cannot be determined. The " Apocalypse of Moses " 
is a mythical narrative of the sickness and death of 
Adam and Eve, who are called the protoplasts A This 
writing is of importance, on account of its exaltation 
of the dignity and grandeur of the primitive man, 
made in the likeness of God. Adam appears as the 
king of creation — a fallen king indeed, but great even 

'■' Tischendorf has published a collection of the apocryphal apoca- 
lypses, under the title, "Apocalypses Apocryphse." Leipzig, 1866. 

f The " Apocalypse of Moses " is probably only a fragment of 
a larger work. This fragment may date from the second century, 
for it contains the legend of Seth going to seek in Paradise the 
oil of consolation for his dying father. Allusion is made to this 
legend in the part of the Gospel of Nicodemus which is called 
" Descensus ad inferos." It seems that we have, in the " Apocalypse 
of Moses," the first foundation of this legend. 



184 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

in his decadence, and destined to be restored to his 
high dignity. The whole narrative is full of sublime 
poetry. The character of Eve appears as the ideal 
of womanhood. When Adam is attacked with his last 
sickness, Eve exclaims, " O my lord, Adam, give me 
the half of thy pain, that I may bear it with thee, 
for it is for my fault thou art thus smitten ! It is I 
who have brought on thee this sorrow and anguish !"* 
As he is dying. Eve says to him, " Wherefore diest 
thou, while I live ?"t " Be not troubled at this," 
Adam replies; "thou shalt soon follow me ; we shall 
die both in one day." Does not this description bring 
before us the Adam and Eve of Milton's poem, treading 
together the path of exile with bitter tears and hands 
clasped in each other's ? Eve tells her children how 
she was led to fall in her great ordeal. She concludes 
the story with some noble words, full of the mingled 
regrets, high aspirations, and poetic feelings of the 
human heart, upon the threshold of Eden, at the 
moment of quitting the abode of glory and purity. 
Adam turns to the seraphim and says: "Suffer me 
to carry away with me the perfume of Paradise."]: 
God suffers it, and he receives that pure aroma of 
Eden which is to be the incense of the sacrifices, and 
to represent the whole ideal and celestial aspect of his 
life. The chief episode in the " Apocalypse of Moses " 
is the mission given by Adam to his son Seth, to go 
and seek the oil of consolation, which flows from the 
tree of life in Paradise. This favour is refused him, 

* Aog fioi TO ijfiKTv Tfjg v6(tov aov. (" Apocalypse qf Moses," chap. 9.) 

f Atd Ti av airoQvriaKUQ myw, (Ibid., chap. 31.) 

X Asofxai vfxCJv, d^m iw£ apai evujSiag, £K tov Trapahiaov. (Ibid., chap. 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 185 

because he is to die ; but scarcely has he breathed his 
last, when his soul is carried away by angels, and his 
body borne into Eden, there to await the resurrection 
day. The death of him who was created for eternal 
life, and was not to die, produces a deep tremor of 
awe throughout the universe. The earth refuses to 
bear the body of its king ; the sun and moon cover 
themselves with a veil, and mourn over him till he 
has been laid in the glorious sepulchre prepared for 
him and for the first woman.* The "Apocalypse of 
Moses " contains one of the most beautiful legends of 
Christian antiquity. We place in the same category 
a very curious writing, composed of various fragments, 
entitled the "Apocalypse of Adam, "t or, the "Testa- 
ment of our father Adam." The first fragment, in 
which we can trace the influence of Persian thought, 
represents to us the adoration of various orders of 
beings in the different hours of the night. The first 
hour is the time of the adoration of the demons, who 
cease to do evil ; the second belongs to the fishes and 
reptiles ; the third to the lower depths ; the fourth to 
the seraphim. " Before my sin," says Adam, " I used 
to hear the sound of their wings in Paradise." At five 
o'clock it is the hour of the sea. " The great waves 
are heard lifting up their voices to bless God." At 
six o'clock the clouds are gathered together : this is 
a moment of religious awe. At seven all the powers 

* " Apocalypse of Moses," chap. xxxv. 

f In the " Asiatic Journal," 3rd series, vol. ii. p. 427 and follow- 
ing, is a, translation of the " Apocalypse of Adam," by M. Renan. 
It is made from the Syriac MSS. of the Vatican and of Paris. 
This writing is identical with the fragment entitled, " Pcenitentiae 
Adas," condemned by the decree of Gelasius. 



l86 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

of the earth rest. If at this instant water is taken, 
and holy oil poured into it, the sick are instantly cured 
by being anointed with this mixture. At eight o'clock 
the earth, which receives the dew from heaven and 
sees the grass grow on its bosom, breaks forth into 
praises. Lastly, we have the adoration of men. The 
doors of heaven open to allow their prayers to pass : 
these are humbly presented, and bring down all that 
they seek. When the sun rises, the earth trembles 
with solemn joy ; all beings keep silence till the incense 
of adoration has ascended to heaven ; then the powers 
separate. The order of prayer during the hours of 
the day resembles that of the night. Let us cite the 
following remarkable words : '' The Holy Spirit de- 
scends and moves upon the waters and the springs. 
If the Spirit of the Lord did not descend and hover 
thus over the waters and the fountains, the race of man 
would be lost, and the demons would destroy with a 
glance whom they would." We see how the material 
notion of the sacrament was already forming itself on- 
the obscure basis of these legends. 

A third fragment contains the prediction of the Christ 
given to Adam after the Fall. It is repeated by the 
patriarch to his son Seth. We here meet with this 
remarkable passage : '' Fear nothing, thou hast desired 
to be God, I will make thee God. Having created thee 
in mine own image, I will not suffer thee to remain in 
Shehol. After three days passed in the tomb, I will 
resume the body of thy race which I have taken upon 
me ; then ascending to heaven, I will make thee sit 
down at the right hand of my Godhead." The testa- 
ment concludes with this declaration of Seth: ''I, Seth, 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 187 

have written this testament after the death of my 
father Adam. We buried him — my brother and I — at 
the east side of Paradise. And the angels and the 
powers of the heavens assisted at his funeral, because 
he had been created in the image of God. We buried 
by him, in the same cave, called the Cave of Trea- 
sures, his testament, and the incense and myrrh from 
Paradise. To this spot the magi came to seek the 
perfumes which they brought to the child Jesus." This 
singular writing, which contains, as will be seen, great 
beauties, closes with a classification of the orders and 
powers, made wholly on the model of the Avesta. 

We may mention yet further the book of John on the 
"Death of Mary," which forms part of the apocalypses 
recently published, and which is dedicated to the glori- 
fication of the mother of the Saviour. All the apostles 
are mysteriously assembled from the various countries 
where they are carrying on their mission, in order to be 
present at the death of Mary. They celebrate her 
praises in terms which, doubtless, did not form part of the 
original text, but are later additions and interpolations. 
Mary becomes a sort of mediator between men and her 
Son. The instant she has breathed her last her body 
is carried away by angels : this is, even at this early 
date, spoken of as her assumption. Although the pre- 
cise time of this writing is not certain, it is impossible 
to suppose that in its present form it goes further back 
than the third century."^ We find in it the full de- 

* The date of the writing called " De Dormitione Marias" (to 
which must be appended " Transitus Marise A., Transitus Mari^ 
B.) is difficult to fix. It is certain that the legends which it con- 
tains arose in the first century of the Christian era, since they are 
reproduced by Gregory of Tours (Beda venerabiHs, "Retract in Act. 



l88 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

velopment and efflorescence of a tradition which was 
formed only by slow degrees, and the precise starting- 
point of which cannot be known. We may place in 
the class of apocalyptic literature the so-called book of 
Hystaspis, the old Median king, who is mentioned by 
Justin Martyr, and who proclaim.s the destruction of 
the world by fire ;* also the " Apocalypse of Peter," 
who foretels the terrible judgments of the future in 
strange terms. t The milk of women coagulating, will 
form worms which will devour their bosom, and flames 
will dart from the eyes of their children to consume 
them. The Christians thus imitated the Jews in 
introducing interpolations into the Sibylline oracles. | 
Some of these interpolations are of very early date. 
The first forms part of Book IV. The Sibyl, after 
proclaiming herself the priestess of the Most High God, 
who desires not temples of stone, describes in vivid 
colours the fearful persecutions inflicted on the pious. 
The day of punishment draws near. Nero, the anti- 
christ, has retired into Asia, deeply stained with innocent 
blood. He intends to return after the destruction of 

app." c. vii.). The decree of Gelasius condemned this apocrypha. 
With reference to the other apocalypses, edited by Tischendorf, we 
may say that of Paul belongs to the time of Theodosius, and that 
of John is not mentioned till the ninth century. The " Apocalyypse 
of Esdras" is uncertain in date, and of no importance as regards 
Christian doctrine. See Tischendorf s " Prolegomena." 

* Kai "EitvXKa 5s Kal 'YardcTTTig yevr)aea9ai ruJv (pOapraiv dvaXojniv did 
TTvpbg t(pa(Tav. (Justin Martyr, "ApoL," i. 20.) 

f Eusebius, " H.E.," iii. 25. Clement of Alexandria knew the 
" Apocalypse of Peter," as given by Eusebius, " H.E.," vi. 14. Grabe, 
" Spicileg.," i. 74. 

\ " Oracula Sibylhna," edit. Alexandria, 1869. See remarks in 
the " Life, Times, and Works of Jesus Christ," in the Sibylline books, 
and in particular on the Jewish interpolations. 



BOOK I.— THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. 189 

the temple by Titus, and to unchain all the fury of 
antichrist. But terrible signs announce the last judg- 
ment : the earth will be shaken and Vesuvius will vomit 
fire. Nero will be destroyed, and from the ashes of the 
now existing world will come forth a new earth, in 
which the righteous — that is, those who have been 
baptised in time — shall reign.* The second oracle, with 
which Book V. opens, is more Judaising in tone. It 
proclaims the same judgments, and connects them also 
with the return of Nero. It is of Alexandrine origin, 
for it speaks chiefly of the judgment of Egypt. t The 
visions of the millenarians thus gained currency, and 
borrowed their ardent hues from the ancient apoca- 
lypses of the Jews. 

We have endeavoured to give a complete idea of that 
apocryphal literature which exerted in the end so great 
an influence upon the development of Christian thought, 
diffusing itself throughout the whole intellectual atmo- 
sphere. We have now before us the data for more than 
mere hypothetical inferences as to the progress of that 
oral tradition of which this literature was sometimes the 
inspiration, sometimes the echo. And first of all we 
recognise that imperious desire of the popular imagina- 
tion to clothe religious ideas in a living and visible 
form — that mythological instinct which rapidly trans- 
figures facts, and fills up all the interstices of history, as 
the moss creeps with its tufted crests into the crevices 
of a wall. Thus, if there is a period in the history of 
Jesus, upon which the canonical Gospels have kept a 
guarded silence, it is that of His childhood ; and 
it is this very period which the legend has mainly 
* Book iv. f Book v. i. 



igO THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

sought to transfigure. A scarcely perceptible basis of 
actual fact suffices as its starting point. That which is 
brought out most prominently by all this apocryphal 
literature, is the tendency to merge more and more the 
distinctively spiritual character of Christianity, and to 
transform it into a religion of outward authority, resting 
solely upon prodigies and issuing in a narrow morality. 
The doctrine of redemption is either absent, or distorted 
in the gradual growth of tradition. Nowhere is the 
sacrifice of Christ presented in its moral virtue, as 
reconciling the world to God, and imparting a new life 
to the pardoned soul. Justification by faith has no 
place in any of these lucubrations of current and 
popular dogmatism. External performances are the 
great essential. The heavenly abode is built by every 
man for himself, by his self-mortification and alms- 
givings. Thus does the spirit of Judaism insinuate 
itself into the souls of the Christians. The person of 
the Redeemer is no less changed than His work. 
All the human and progressive side of his earthly 
career, all that shows the reality of His self-abasement, 
is suppressed. He is made to work miracles without 
number, from His very cradle ; and then is originated 
that dry and lifeless metaphysical theory which puts 
in the place of the Christ of the Gospels the Byzantine 
Christ, as He is defined by the council of Chalcedony. 
The Christian life is no less shorn of the characters of 
normal humanity ; the fantastic perfection of asceticism 
is substituted for the simple and manly performance of 
duty; and the descent is thus begun to the Romish 
counsels of perfection and the deterioration of sound 
morality. While the fathers of Alexandria are inau- 



BOOK I. — THE APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. igi 

gurating with brilliant powers the great Christian 
apology which bases our certainty in matters of 
religion on the harmony of the Gospel with the con- 
science, the ignorant masses choose a shorter way, and a 
less elevated demonstration, that namely of the Jews, of 
whom Paul speaks — "They seek after a sign." Hence 
comes that prodigality of miracles of which we have 
spoken, and which were designed to establish the divine 
origin of the new religion. The same tendency led to 
the attempt to multiply apostolic documents. Exagge- 
rating beyond measure the value of the written title, 
if we may so express it, they forgot the spirit in the 
letter, and were far less concerned to base their belief 
upon a rational interpretation of the canonical Scrip- 
tures, than to add to their number. When the name 
of an apostle had been attached to any doctrine what- 
soever, even were it in flagrant opposition to the New 
Testament, they considered the point established 
beyond appeal. Such at least was the vulgar opinion. 
Hence false teachers were under strong temptation to 
put in circulation a host of apocryphal scriptures. They 
would not have done so if such endeavours had been 
rendered futile by a true conception of Christian au- 
thority, which would have attached importance to the 
general scope of the revelation, rather than to isolated 
texts, or the invocation of some honoured name. When 
once the production of an apostolic signature is ac- 
cepted as decisive, there is every inducement to fabricate 
false documents. Absolutely false, moreover, they are 
not. There is always a larger or less nucleus of truth 
in the tradition. An insignificant fact, a word miscon- 
strued, will suffice to originate an entire new growth of 



192 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

legends, and inventions are placed without scruple under 
the same sacred shelter of an apostolic name. It was 
by the same influences that the materialistic notion of 
sacramental virtue was formed and fostered. More and 
more importance came to be attached to the outward 
rite ; baptism became identified with the pagan lustra- 
tions ; and language was used in reference to the Lord's 
Supper which gave authority to every superstition. 
Finally, men began to people this sort of Christian 
Olympus, in which the creature would soon find a niche 
for self-worship, and the Virgin-mother was already 
placed on its highest summit, the first step in an 
apotheosis not yet complete. Such is beyond question 
the direction of this current of oral tradition, which for 
the time runs parallel with the public teaching of the 
Church, and accommodates itself to the tendencies of 
the ignorant classes, while the great theology of Alex- 
andria is established upon the somewhat cloudy heights 
of speculation. Oral tradition is a sort of obscure uni- 
versal suffrage, which will in the end make its will 
paramount, and gain the sanction of the official autho- 
rities. 



BOOK SECOND. 

THE DE VELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 
IN THE SECOND AND THIRD CENTURIES. 

CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

§ I. The Universal Faith of the Church in the Second 
and Third Centuries. 

Christian theology finds in this period of intense 
piety and incessant conflict its fullest and most various 
development. We observe great schools, not opposed 
to one another, but differing widely, and all treating 
with perfect freedom the fundamental statements of 
the Gospel. There is no central power ; the synods 
are accidental and quite subordinate assemblies. The 
more the State manifests its intolerance, the more 
firmly does the Church maintain its moral inde- 
pendence. For ever at issue with brute force, it 
cannot accept its complicity even in the proscription 
of error. The picture we shall draw of the develop- 
ment of Christian thought at this time will make very 
evident the vigour and freedom of its methods. It 

14 



194 'THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

remained nevertheless profoundly and stedfastly Chris- 
tian, and in willing subjection to the general tenor 
of apostolic teaching. Theological speculation never 
impaired, if I may so speak, the rock of fundamental 
truths ; it ever respected the corner-stone of the build- 
ing. It often encompassed it, no doubt, with daring 
and darkening conceits, but the same substantial 
reality of the faith underlay them all. This is ex- 
plained by the fact that the faith of the Church was 
not at the mercy of the speculations and possible errors 
of religious science. It was the inalienable possession 
of the Christian heart, guaranteed by experience, and 
it constituted a living and indestructible bond between 
all the Churches. Thus the much controverted dis- 
tinction between the fundamental and secondary points 
of faith sprang up of itself from the unfailing instinct 
of piety. 

Fully assured that the treasure of sacred truth, that 
which the apostles called " the faith once delivered 
to the saints," could not be lost, the Church granted 
all latitude to the researches of theology, so long as 
this did not, as in the case of Gnosticism, compromise 
Christian theism. An earnest contending for essential 
points coincided with a generous breadth in minor 
matters. Men did not imagine in those days that all 
was compromised by the slightest divergence in the 
conception of the same fact, accepted alike by both 
sides. The calm assurance of faith banished the 
senseless terrors which lead to constant reactions ; for 
there is no surer way of bringing bondage upon the 
mind than the fear of inquiry, which betrays doubt 
rather than strength of conviction. Serious and well- 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. I95 

founded beliefs are tolerant just because they are not 
afraid of being shipwrecked in the first storm. The 
more deeply religious they are, the more directly they 
rest upon the inner life of the soul, the more they 
respect the rights of thought, and avoid infringing 
upon its domain. On the other hand, the dry scholas- 
ticism which transforms Christianity into a mere in- 
tellectual system, keeps a jealous watch over every 
link in its chain of deductions. The doctrinal formula 
being in its view the essential, the slightest deviation 
wounds it to the heart, or, to speak more correctly, 
touches it on its most sensitive point. 

Let us embrace, in a rapid glance, that which con- 
stituted the faith of the Church in the second and 
third centuries. I do not think that in an age of 
earnest resistance to Gnosticism the Christian faith 
would have been designated by the name of orthodoxy, 
for this word would have seemed to favour a purely 
scientific notion of religion. Christians were then 
specially anxious that religion should not be regarded 
as consisting in a correct opinion with regard to 
God. Religion was to them essentially a moral 
and living principle, without, however, as we shall 
show, being on that account vague and uncertain. 
We shall confine ourselves here to a slight outline of 
the facts, and to a few broad indications, for the 
demonstration, properly so called, will be amply con- 
tained in the picture we shall presently give of the 
worship of the Church, and of the Christian life. 

The Christian faith at this time, as always, has for 
its great object Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the 
Saviour of the world. The whole of Christianity 

14* 



196 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

centres in His person. How could it be other- 
wise, since He is the Mediator between earth and 
heaven, the One who has restored the broken link 
between humanity and God ? Is not this link the 
essential condition of this sacred relation between 
man and his Creator which is called religion ? Jesus 
Christ is not regarded simply as the initiator of a new 
worship, or a perfect model of religion. No. He is 
the very object of the religion He has founded ; He 
is the centre and source of life and piety. Nothing 
can be further removed from the universal sentiment 
of the Church than Unitarian notions. If, as we 
shall see, theology, even when animated by an evan- 
gehcal spirit, does not find sufficient and always correct 
explanation of this adoration of Christ, the fact never- 
theless remains, and its catholicity cannot be im- 
pugned. In order to be convinced of this, we need 
only remember the part which faith in Jesus fills in 
the roll of martyrdom. The Christian who is cast 
into prison, and brought before the tribunal of the 
proconsul, thence to be taken to the stake, or led into 
the arena, endures all this hardness and suffering for 
the Redeemer's sake. It is with that name upon 
his lips he stands unabashed before his judges, and 
does not flinch in view of his executioners. He is 
ready, as said the young martyr girl of Lyons, to 
*' follow the Lamb whithersoever He leadeth." Any 
one familiar with the story of the long and bloody 
contest between imperial Rome and the Church, will 
be fully assured that every confessor had the deep 
conviction that he belonged — body, soul, and spirit — 
to his Divine Master; that Christ had a supreme 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. I97 

right over his life, over his most cherished affections, 
over his entire being. Martyrdom is in itself a 
confession of faith — the powerful proclamation of the 
duty of leaving all for Jesus, and it is at His feet 
the martyr's palms are cast adoringly. The motto of 
Ignatius is that of every confessor : *' All I lay down, 
may I but win Christ!"* To share His cup is the 
highest happiness. t If the dungeon becomes luminous 
it is when the Christian in raptured vision sees the 
bright form of the Crucified One rising over the shadow 
that surrounds him. We have already shown how his 
ardent, unquestioning faith in Christ, which implies that 
He is all in all to the soul, lives again in the expres- 
sive symbols traced wdth sublime simplicity upon the 
gloomy walls of the catacombs. Here we find the 
confession of faith of the persecuted Church drawn 
by trembling hands amidst the lurid flashes of the 
stake. While the perpetually recurring image of the 
Good Shepherd, bearing home on His shoulders the 
lost sheep, points to the redeeming love which is the 
central fact of the Gospel, the presence of the Son 
of God in the furnace seven times heated records that 
which was the highest consolation, the triumphant 
joy of the confessors of the new covenant. Number- 
less inscriptions, accompanied with speaking symbols, 
give praise to Christ for the peace of those whose dust 
has been piously laid beside the ashes of the martyrs. 
The monogram of His name, the fish, the anchor 
beneath the cross, traced in hurried and mysterious 
outline, fill with the memory of Christ this sleeping- 

"!' Ignatius, " Epist. ad Roman.," 4. 
t " Acta martyr. Polyc," c. 14. 



198 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

place of the dead. Lastly, the child Jesus in the arms 
of His mother, is often held forth to the eyes of the 
worshipper.* 

The manifestation of faith, when it is involuntary and 
blends with the life of every day, carries with it a 
peculiar strength of conviction. Now it is certain that 
the whole life of the Christian is linked with the 
thought and memory of the Redeemer; it bears His 
image stamped upon it. The first day of the week, the 
observance of which was freely substituted for the 
Sabbath, to meet the necessities of worship as well as 
those of individual piety, bears His name ; Sunday is 
the Lord's day, the perpetual memorial of His resur- 
rection. t Wednesday and Friday soon came to be set 
apart by the Church in special remembrance of His 
humiliation and death : these were called stations. A 
similar change passed upon the year. The great Jewish 
feasts, all commemorative of mighty miracles wrought 
by Jehovah for His people, were replaced by the 
Christian festivals, the original cycle of which consisted 
of the anniversary of the birth of Christ, Easter, and 
Pentecost.! So much importance was attached to 
these, that one of the most serious controversies 
between the Christian East and West hinges on the 
determination of the time at which Easter should be 
celebrated. The "Apostolical Constitutions" go farther 
still ; they divide the day, like the week and the year, 
into sacred periods, each hour on the dial marked by 

* We shall have to speak again more in detail on this subject 
in the last volume, which will treat in part of worship and the 
Christian life. 

f "Epist. ad Barnab.," c. 15 ; Justin Martyr, "Apol," i. 67. 

I Gieseler, "Kirchen-Geschichte,'' vol, i. c. ii. s. 53 ; c. iv. s. 70. 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. IQQ 

some holy memory.* We simply mention here these 
practices of the ancient Church, the complete descrip- 
tion of which will come in due course. We draw from 
this only one inference, namely, that the adoration of 
Christ is the basis of the general life of the Church, and 
sets its seal upon the whole. 

This is no less manifest in the worship of the Chris- 
tians, if for one moment we turn our attention to this in 
its more general aspect. Where shall we find a clearer 
confession of faith than in the two great sacraments 
of the Church. Baptism is the enrolment in the sacred 
militia ; it takes the place of circumcision, and incor- 
porates the convert with the people of God, in the name 
of the Father, the vSon, and the Holy Ghost. Sometimes 
even the baptismal formula contains the name of Christ 
alone, so intimately is that associated with the two 
other names. The double act of baptism, the burying 
beneath the water, and the rising again into the light, 
points to the death and resurrection of the Redeemer : 
thus its very administration contains a full confession 
of the entire Gospel. The communion, celebrated as 
the great Christian mystery, is the Holy of Holies of 
the worship. All the fragments of liturgies that have 
come down to us are found to be full of the acknow- 
ledgment of redemption by the blood of the cross, and 
of adoration of the atoning Victim. It is not possible 
even for the boldest systematisers to derive any other 
teaching from the table of the eucharist, or to deprive 
this rite of its mystical character. " This meal," says 
Justin, "is called the eucharist, because it is not per- 

^= " Constit. Eccl. /Egypt," canon 62. In the " Analecta Ante- 
nicsena of Bunsen," vol. ii. p. 473. 



200 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

mitted to any to partake of it except those who believe 
in that which is taught by us, and who have received 
baptism for the remission of sins and the new birth." * 
The prayers and hymns, which occupy a large place in 
the worship, and which we find in the liturgical docu- 
ments, pour out in swelling floods their strains of 
adoration for the Saviour-God, retracing, with all the 
fervour of the lyric muse, the work of redemption in its 
leading features. I will quote only one fragment from 
the Alexandrine liturgy: "We thank Thee, O Lord, by 
Thy well-beloved Son Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast 
sent in these last days to be our Saviour and Redeemer. 
He is the Word who comes from Thee, and by whom 
Thou hast made all things. He was made flesh, and 
declared to be Thy Son by the Holy Ghost." The 
doxology runs thus: "Grant us Thy Holy Spirit for 
the confirmation of our faith in the truth, that Thy 
saints may praise and magnify Thee in Thy Son Jesus 
Christ, in whom Thou hast the glory and the power in 
Thy holy Church, world without end. Amen." The 
prayer concludes with these words: "In the name of 
Thine only Son, in whom to Thee, with Him and the 
Holy Spirit, be honour and power for ever." Elsewhere 
in this same liturgy the invocation is openly addressed 
to Jesus Christ. " We praise Thee, we adore Thee, 
O God, the King of heaven. Almighty Father. O Lord, 
the only Son, Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, Son of the 
Father, have pity on us, receive our prayer." 

Even the adversaries of the Church bear testimony 
to its faith, as in the famous passage of Pliny's letter 

* ^Hg ovdevL aXXtjj fiETatrx^^v f^Kov lariv, rj r(^ TnarevovTi. (Justin, 
"Apol.," ii. 97.) See "The Liturgy of the Church of Alexandria ;" 
Bunsen, " Analecta Antenicsena," vol iii. p. loi. 



1 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 201 

on the hymns which Christians address to Christ as 
their God. We call to mind, moreover, the attacks of 
the Jew Trypho, and of the pagan philosopher Celsus, 
directed against the idea that the Nazarene was the 
Son of the Most High God, and more especially against 
the incarnation.* Besides this implied confession of the 
faith of the Church, which is more decisive than any 
other, we have formal and exact testimony given again 
and again as to the beliefs common to all Christians. 
We have not to inquire here what were the influences 
which helped to originate the idea of a rule of faith 
more or less obligatory. This would be to enter pre- 
maturely into the question of the dogmatic development 
of the idea of authority, a question which is determined 
by the whole character of the Christian thought of the 
age. But apart from this special and delicate point of 
inquiry, the declarations of the Fathers suffice to show, 
with no ambiguity, what constituted the universal faith 
of Christendom in the second and third centuries. 
Justin Martyr gives us a very clear epitome of that 
which the Church of his day recognised as the fulfilment 
of the prophecies. ''The holy oracles," he says, "de- 
clare Him, who, born of a virgin, was, on attaining to 
man's estate, to heal all manner of sickness and disease, 
and to raise the dead ; then, alike hated and misunder- 
stood, to be crucified, to die, rise again, and return into 
heaven. This is our Jesus Christ, who is called the 
Son of God, as in reality He is."t The following 
passage from Irenaeus is still more explicit as to the 
faith common to all the Churches. 

- Pliny, "Epist." lib. x. ep. 46. Justin, " Dial. cum. Tryph.," p. 250 
(Paris edition). Origen, "Contra Celsus," iv. 3, and followino-. 
"Opera," i. 503-506. f Justin, "Apol.," ii. p. 73. 



202 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

" The apostles and their disciples transmitted to the 
Church, which is spread abroad over the whole earth, 
the faith in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of 
heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are 
therein ; and in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, incarnate 
for our salvation ; and in the Holy Ghost, who by the 
prophets foretold the divine dispensation, the coming of 
the Son, His passion and resurrection from the dead, 
His ascension in His body into heaven, and His second 
coming from heaven, from the glory of the Father, to 
restore all things, to raise all the dead, and to make every 
knee, both in heaven and in earth, bow before Jesus 
Christ, our Lord, our God, our Saviour, and our King, 
according to the good pleasure of the invisible Father ; 
and to make every tongue confess Him, all lips pay Him 
homage, and that He should reign in righteousness and 
sit in judgment upon all flesh. He will condemn to 
eternal fire the perverse spirits, rebellious angels, and 
apostates, as also the impious, the unjust, the dis- 
obedient, and blasphemous among men.. But for the 
just and the saints, for those who shall have kept His 
commandments and continued in His love, whether 
from the first or after their repentance, for them He 
has prepared immortality and eternal glory."* Such is 
the faith of the latter half of the second century. 

Let us hear the testimony of Tertullian, at the com- 
mencement of the third century. He gives us three 
summaries of the common faith. We quote the shortest 
and most exact. "There is one only rule of faith. It 
consists in believing in one God, the Almighty Creator 

* TovTO TO Ktjpvyfia Kai Tavrrjv rriv TriTriv t) tKKkrja'ia Kanrep Iv oXy r^ 
KofTww SiemrapnevT] f.7riue\(og (pvXaaau. (Irenaeus, " Hseres.," i. 3.) 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 203 

of the world, and in His Son Jesus Christ, born of the 
virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, raised from 
the dead the third day, received up into heaven, and 
now sitting at the right hand of God, whence He shall 
come to judge the quick and the dead by the resur- 
rection of the body."* Hear again Origen. *' This is 
the substance of all that has come down to us by the 
preaching of the apostles. First, there is one God, 
the Former and Creator of all things, who made all 
that exists out of nothing; the God of all the righteous 
from the creation and formation of the world, the God 
of Adam, of Abel, of Seth, of Enoch, of Noah, Shem, 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the twelve patriarchs, 
of Moses and the prophets. This God, as He has fore- 
told by the prophets, hath sent forth in these last-tinies 
our Lord Jesus Christ, to call Israel first to Himself, 
and then the Gentiles, after the faithlessness of the 
children of Israel. This just and good God is the 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He gave the law, 
the prophets, and the gospels. He is the God of the 
apostles ; the God of the Old and New Testaments. 
Jesus Christ, who came into the world, was born of the 
Father before every creature. After working with His 
Father in the creation of the universe (for all things 
were made by Him), in these last times He humbled 
Himself and became incarnate, and was made man ; 
He who was God, and who still remained God, even 

'^ "Regula fidei una omnino est sola immobilis et irreformabilis, 
credendi scilicet in unicum Deum omnipotentem mundi creatorem, 
et filium ejus Jesum Christum, natum ex virgine Maria, crucifixum 
sub Pontic Pilato, tertia die resuscitatum a mortuis, receptum in 
ccelis, sedentem nunc ad dexteram Patris, venturum judicare vivos 
et mortuos per carnis etiam resurrectionem." (Tertuilian, "De virg. 
vel." chap, i.) 



204 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

in taking upon Him human nature. He assumed a 
body like our own, differing only that He was 
born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit. The birth and 
the suffering of this Jesus were both actual facts. He 
did not pass through a mere semblance of our common 
death ; He really died, and truly rose again from the 
dead, and held intercourse with His disciples after His 
resurrection. According to this same apostolic tra- 
dition, the Holy Spirit is joined in honour and dignity 
with the Father and the Son."* 

At that period the catechumens of Alexandria were 
taught to express their faith in these terms : '* I believe 
in the one true God, the Father Almighty, and in His 
only Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and in 
the Holy Spirit who gives life." t This was the first 
development of the simple baptismal formula which 
had so long satisfied the Church. At the close of 
the third century this simple profession of faith had 
become much overlaid, as may be seen from the creed 
contained in the seventh book of the "Apostolical Con- 
stitutions," which belongs to this period. It is thus 
expressed : " I pledge myself to Christ, and I am 
baptised in the faith of the One Supreme Uncreated 
God, in Jesus Christ, by whom the universe was^ 
created and formed, and from whom all things proceed. 
I believe in the Lord Jesus, His only Son, the first-born 

* Origen, " De princip.," i.; " Prififatio," 4. 

t Uiareviij Eig tov jxovov akqQivov Oeov, O^ov top Trarspa rbv TravTOKparopa^ 
Kai eig tov fiovoYevfj avrov vibv 'Irjaovv xpiorov tov Kvpiov Kai (TiOTrjpa rj/xwv, 
Kai elg to uyiov Trvevfuc to Zmottolovv. " Constit. Eccl. -^gypt.," ii. 46. 
(Bunsen, " Antenicaena," iii. 91.) The words which follow, bjxoovmov 
Tpiada, are an interpolation of the fourth century. The third 
century as yet rejected the expression b (xoov olo g, as is proved 
by the condemnation of Paul of Samosata. 



A 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 205 

of all creation, begotten before the ages by the good 
pleasure of the Father, not created, by whom all things 
in heaven and earth were made, visible and invisible. 
In the last times He descended from heaven and took 
upon Him our flesh. He was born of the virgin Mary. 
He lived holily and blamelessly in the world, walking 
in all the commandments of His God and Father. He 
was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He died for us, and 
after His passion He was raised again for us the third 
day, and ascended into heaven, where He is set down 
at the right hand of the Father. Thence He will come 
again with glory in the fulness of time to judge the 
quick and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. 
I am baptised into the Holy Spirit, who is the Paraclete, 
who has been working from the beginning of the world 
in all the saints, who was then sent down upon the 
apostles, according to the promise of our Lord Jesus 
Christ; and after the apostles, upon all those who 
believe in the name of the holy Church, the resurrec- 
tion of the body, the forgiveness of sins, the kingdom 
of heaven, and the life everlasting."* 

Here we find, in a somewhat prolix form, all the 
essential points of the formula known as the Apostles' 
Creed. The analogy is more striking in the concise 
formula which was used in the Church of Africa in the 
time of Cyprian. With the exception of the two last 
articles, this is precisely the creed now in use among 
us. It is evident that it was compiled from the for- 
mula of baptism, in which was intercalated the rule 
of faith as we see in Tertullian.t No one at that time 
made any pretence of tracing it to the apostles, as was 

* " Constit. Apost.," vii. 4. f Cyprian, " Epist," 697. 



206 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

successfully done from the close of the fourth century. 
It was recognised in early times to be a simple and 
natural expansion of the primitive confession of faith 
made by the converts, which was just an epitome of the 
general belief of the Church during three centuries.* 
We may then regard it as the true creed of the primi- 
tive times. It expresses with simplicity, under the form 
of a material statement, but not without reference to 
the great Gnostic heresies which had so profoundly 
agitated the minds of men, the beliefs which formed the 
joy and strength of primitive Christianity. The creed 
is raised far above all theology, of which it is grandly 
independent ; it is indestructible, and is found in sub- 
stance in all the great systems which attempt to give 
a satisfactory explanation of saving truth after it has 
been grasped and apprehended by the heart of the 
believer. 

Beyond this the fathers are fully cognizant of the 
difference which exists between simple faith and re- 
ligious science. They are careful that the former be 
not involved in the obscurities and uncertainties of the 
latter. Justin Martyr declares that the fact of the 
divinity of Christ abides unmoved, if the explanations 
of it are found inadequate. "OTrypho!" he says, 
" Jesus Christ will not cease to be the Son of God, even 
if I fail to prove that He pre-exists as the Son of Him 
from whom all things proceed. It may then be fairly 
said that I have fallen into some error, but not that He 

'<" See M. Nicholas's book : " Le Symbole des Apotres. Essai 
historique," Paris, 1867, c. iv. See also the admirable pamphlet 
of M. Viguier, on the same subject, and " L'histoire du Credo," by 
A. Coquerel, fils; also Germer-Bailliere, 1869 ; though we hold the 
right of differing on some points from these honourable writers. 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 207 

is not the Christ."* Thus we are warned that spe- 
culative errors are of no force to shake the faith of the 
heart, since that stands firm through all the often mis- 
taken efforts of science. Origen traces with a no less 
steady hand the line of demarcation between faith and 
theology. After giving an epitome of the universal 
faith of Christians, he adds: " It is not clearly perceived 
whether we must admit that the Son of God was or 
was not begotten. But such questions must be re- 
solved by the study of Holy Scripture and by wise 
research. "t Thus the claims of faith, which should be 
no uncertain thing, are reconciled with those of Chris- 
tian science, which within the limits of revelation 
should have free scope. No system of the schools, no 
scholastic formula can be drawn from the simple docu- 
ments which represent primitive Christianity. Hence 
it lends itself with facility to the onward movement of 
thought, and to its investigation, made with holy bold- 
ness. It does not arrest inquiries by blind anathemas, 
and if it does not guarantee freedom from error, it does 
at least guide the seeker after truth, and guard him 
from a fatal fall. No power is comparable to that of a 
faith so sure of itself, so strict and severe on essential 
points, but so broad and tolerant on all matters coming 
within the range of science proper. It is true that as 
we approach the close of this period the Church mani- 
fests a growing tendency to forge the yoke of tradition 
and ecclesiastical authority; but that yoke did not 
press with all its weight upon theology till it had been 

* OvK cnroKkvTai to toiovtov dvai -xpiaTOV rov 9sov, lav cnrolu%ai jirj 
^vvu>j.iai OTL Kai TrpovTTtipx^v v'lbg rov ttoitjtov twv oXcov 6e6v. (Justin, 
" Dial, cum Tryph.," 267.) 

i Origen " De princip." i. ; " Prefatio," 4. 



208 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

placed upon the imperial anvil. The liberty at first 
enjoyed was only lost by degrees ; it needed the com- 
bined effort of great councils and of crowned patrons 
of the Church to suppress it altogether. 



§ II. The various Schools and Tendencies in the Dogmatic 
Development of the Second and Third Centuries, 

We have now to describe the development of Chris- 
tian theology in the second and third centuries, passing 
by the question of apologies, already treated, and the 
ecclesiastical controversies, which we reserve for the 
conclusion of our book. The men who exercised the 
preponderating influence in this development are known 
to us. We have not to deal with abstractions or 
creations of the reason. It is easy to trace in each 
system the mind of him who originated and developed 
it, and to recognise, as it were, his moral physiognomy. 
We have now to deal only with the doctrines them- 
selves. 

Two rocks must be avoided. We must guard against 
the spirit of system which applies its bold generahsa- 
tions to facts, and moulds them to its own purposes, 
reducing them to a mutilated and fractional condition, 
in which ideas lose their true significance by being 
detached from their connection, or from their parent 
thought. The generalising process was pushed to 
the furthest limits in the history of Christian doctrine 
by two schools directly opposed to each other in every- 
thing except this question of method. The school of 
ultra-orthodoxy has made quite as bold use of it as the 
extreme speculative school. Both remodel the history, 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 209 

instead of making it their guide, and commence by 
inserting that which they desire to discover in it. 
This arbitrary mode of interpretation has been freely 
followed by both parties in forming the doctrine of the 
second and third centuries. Subsequently theology 
assumes a fixed and rigorously defined form, which 
could not easily be made the subject of so complete 
a metamorphosis. This is not the case at the time 
when theology is, so to speak, in process of formation. 
With some effort and determination, refractory ideas 
are brought to conform to the required standard ; but, 
at the same time, in the eager seeking after a pre- 
determined creed, the sense of reality is lost, and the 
history is distorted. 

This is the great reproach which we make against 
that which we have called ultra-orthodoxy, whether 
in the Catholic or Protestant sense of the word. The 
most moderate among the historians of dogma in the 
Catholic community is one of the oldest and most 
erudite. Father Petau makes an attempt, in his great 
book on " Dogmatic Theology,"* to establish the una- 
nimity of all the doctors of the early ages, in order to 
adhere to the principle of Vincent de Lerins, as to 
the traditional orthodoxy which is to be found in all 
places, in all times, and among all teachers. t Never- 
theless, in relation to the doctrine of the Trinity, he 
admits more than one divergence among the early 
Fathers. He seeks to modify these differences, de- 
claring sometimes that they are insignificant, and arise 
only out of the defectiveness of theological speech ; 

* " De theologicis dogmatibus." Paris Edition, 1644. 
f " Quod ab omnibus, quod ubique, quod semper." 

15 



210 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

sometimes that they result from the demands and diffi- 
culties of the Christian apology.* When, however, 
he comes to the actual exposition of the doctrine of 
these Fathers, he owns that Justin, Athenagoras, and 
Theophilus of Antioch taught the subordination of the 
Son to the Father.! Bossuet, in his polemics against 
Jurieu, on the occasion of his " Histoire des variations," 
carefully guards against making this concession. In 
an admirable paper, full of luminousness and nervous 
eloquence, he attempts to set aside every doubtful 
meaning of the most difficult texts of Justin Martyr 
or Athenagoras, and to bring them into conformity 
with the orthodoxy of Nicsea. His argument is very 
vague and general, however, in spite of its semblance 
of power. His noble language cannot conceal the 
weakness of his exegesis. He constantly reverts to 
the assertion that it is not possible that great saints, 
martyr? of Christ, should have derogated in thought 
from His eternal divinity. With such a method, there 
ceases to be any true inquiry into things as they are, 
and we note in its stead, the constant endeavour to 
discover that which, from the point of view adopted, 
should have been there.! Unhappily, this method 
is still followed by a large number of historians, both 
in Germany and France. Its drawbacks are very ap- 
parent in the history of doctrine by Henri Klee,§ a 

'" "De theologicis dogmatibus," vol. ii. Preface, sec. 12. 

f Ibid., vol. ii. chap. 3. 

I " Advertissements aiix Protestants sur les lettres du ministre 
Jurieu. (Euvres de Bossuet." Didot edition, vol. iv. p. 298, and 
following. 

§ " Manuel de I'histoire des dogmes Chretiens," by Henri Klee. 
Translated from the German by Abbe Mabire. Paris : Lecoffre, 
1848. 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 211 

work otherwise of no slight merit, which merges the 
divergence of doctrines in the fundamental agreement 
of the tradition, and attaches less importance than is 
due to the many discrepancies which do present them- 
selves. " The general belief," he says, " is expressed 
by the particular creeds." From this stage it is but 
another step to do violence to the sense of the par- 
ticular creeds, and that step is repeatedly taken by 
the author. The " History of Doctrine previous to the 
time of the Nicasan Council," by Schwane, displays 
more science in arriving at the same result, while it 
also makes some concessions with regard to the im- 
perfectness of the doctrinal formulae of the Fathers 
of the second century.* Moehler, in his " Patrology," 
maintains the unblemished orthodoxy of the first apo- 
logists; and, in spite of his great learning and felicitous 
mode of expression, he shows from the first that deter- 
mined preconception which prevents the impartial study 
of the facts.! We find the same fault with kindred 
works published in France within the last few years. 
Under the designation of a " Cours d'eloquence sacree,' ' 
M. I'Abbe Freppel, canon of S. Genevieve, presents 
a complete picture of Christian literature up to the 
close of the third century. He there displays vast 
erudition, and his exposition — always lucid — is full of 
interest. It is lacking, however, in the high im- 
partiality which seeks only that which history can 
fairly give, for he also violently coerces the often 
'•' " Dogmengeschichte der vornicKnischen Zeit." By Jos. 
Schwane. Aliinster, 1862. 

f " La Patrologie, ou Histoire litteraire des trois premiers siecles 
de I'Eglise Chretienne." Posthumous work of J. Moehler. 2 vols. 
Translated by Jean Cohen. Paris, 1842. 

15 * 



212 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

vague thoughts of the Fathers of the earlier age into 
conformity with the orthodox standard of the fourth 
century.* The most important work treating of the 
history of doctrine before Nicsea, is the learned book of 
Mgr. Ginoulhac, bishop of Grenoble, entitled " Histoire 
du dogme catholique pendant les trois premiers siecles 
de I'EgHse."! The title indicates the method pursued. 
The author seeks to discover the Catholic dogma in 
all its rigour, as early as the second century. He 
commences by setting forth that doctrine as officially 
promulgated on each article, and thus he brings all 
the texts, even the most recalcitrant, into harmony 
with the orthodox formula, without allowing a mo- 
ment's hesitation or any space for a gradual develop- 
ment. Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and Tertullian are 
made to hold views as definite as those of Athanasius 
on the Trinity. It is not possible to do greater violence 
to the most elementary conditions of science, though 
the learning of the writer cannot be disputed. We 
shall have more than one occasion to adduce conclu- 
sive proofs of the statement just made, in our exami- 
nation of ante-Nicaean theolog>\ 

All the schools of narrow orthodoxy agree in this 
a priori method, which imposes its own tenets on the 
history, instead of submitting to its teaching. We 
know how the idea of the smallest possible latitude 
of thought prevailing in Christian antiquity in rela- 
tion to redemption and the Trinity, was repudiated by 
the English EvangeHcal school, which contributed so 

* " Cours d'^loquence sacrde " (comprising the Apostolic Fathers, 
the Apologists, Tertullian). Paris. Bray, editor. 
I Paris : Durand, 1866. ist edition. 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 213 

much to the reawakening of faith at the beginning 
of this century, but which has for a long time laid 
its yoke upon the religious thought of our French 
speaking countries. The mere mention of a history 
of doctrine would have been a scandal to this class 
of religionists, who claim to have found a faultless 
tradition, which, from the Reformation to the Vaudois, 
and from the Vaudois to the primitive times of Chris- 
tianity, forms one unbroken chain of pure doctrine. 
Milner's " Church History," one of the most popular 
books of this school, shows how, under such treatment, 
the great sections of the primitive Church in the East 
and West may be deprived of all their suggestive 
originality.* Every diversified hue is merged in a 
common greyness. The dry Protestant scholasticism 
of the seventeenth century is carried back to the 
time of Irenseus, of Hippolytus, and Origen. 

Thus does the spirit of system falsify history no less 
under the banner of the Reformation than under that 
of Catholicism. It is just to acknowledge that the 
scientific movement of the nineteenth century helped 
to widen the mental range of both parties. It is un- 
necessary to dwell here on the great labours of the 
German evangelical school, those vast and conscien- 
tious histories of doctrine to which we have had occa- 
sion again and again to refer our readers. They were 

'■^ "History of the Christian Church up to the middle of the six- 
teenth century," by J. Milner. Note especially vol. i. chap. 2, in 
which the author discovers the entire orthodoxy of his school in 
the three primitive ages. Clement of Alexandria and Origen are 
alone held worthy of severe mention, for having recognised some 
elements of good in the pagan philosophy, but substantially they 
are as orthodox as the rest. This book is a masterpiece of bigoted 
iR'norance. 



214 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

preceded by the polemical writings of Jurieu, in oppo- 
sition to Bossuet, Basnages, in his learned work on 
the " History of the Church and its Succession," shows 
fairly the divergences between the Fathers; but even 
he is too much inclined to seek, side by side with the 
broad current, a thin stream of pure doctrine true to 
the tradition of the apostles. Dr. Newman, in his 
remarkable book on " The Development of Christian 
Doctrine,"* has attempted to lead contemporary Catho- 
licism into this liberal and scientific track. The in- 
genious author admits without hesitation the varia- 
tions of primitive theology. He distinguishes between 
the original and sacred fact, which he regards as the 
immutable essence of Christianity, and the explana- 
tions of that fact, which are susceptible of progress 
and expansion, and of a growing approximation to the 
divine realities. It is vain for Dr. Newman to pretend 
that this process of development has been carried on 
in one direct line in the Catholic Church, under the 
direction of an infallible authority, which was itself 
at first vague and indefinite. He retains, nevertheless, 
the right to note the divergences of the early Fathers, 
without feeling himself bound to cloak them under 
a garb of unity, and he may remain therefore an im- 
partial and sincere historian. This scientific attempt, 
made with great learning and rare intellectual skill, 
is worthy of special note. It indicates to the Catholic 
theologians the only way of entering seriously and 
fairly upon the history of doctrine. It must be said, 
however, that Dr. Newman's is an isolated attempt, 

''' " History of the Development of Christian Doctrine," by J..H. 
Newman. 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 215 

and that the historical method of absolute tradition- 
alism, of which Vincent de Lerins is the representa- 
tive, still predominates in a way very detrimental to 
the true interests of religious science. 

The a priori tendency reappears also in the school 
most directly opposed to strict Catholic and Protestant 
orthodoxy. Here it speaks in the name of transcen- 
dental philosophy, and is honourably represented by 
the illustrious Baur, who has placed his vast scholar- 
ship and close dialectic power at the service of Hegel's 
philosophy. As we read his work on the first three 
centuries, we can but admire the marvellous keenness 
of analytic power in the exposition of the various sys- 
tems. He represents the succession of doctrines as 
the fatal development of a metaphysical theorem, which 
he considers self-evident. It is the perpetual evolution 
of the infinite mind, which from an affirmation draws 
a negation, itself to become the parent of a new series 
of similar evolutions. Thus Judaeo-Christianity and 
Paulinism form the first antithesis, which resolves itself 
into the broad speculation of the fourth gospel. Hence 
we have the opposition of Gnosticism and Montanism 
issuing in a fresh synthesis, which is the catholicity 
of the third century, at once speculative at Alexandria 
and realistic at Rome. This a priori philosophy, in 
spite of the superior talent and learning of the his- 
torian, produces a very phantasmagoria.* 

* This system is embodied in the various works of Baur, and 
more especially in his " Discourses on the History of Doctrine," 
published after his death. With the exception of some interesting 
monographs, Protestant France has produced of late years only 
one important book on the " History of Doctrine," the work of M. 
Eugene Haag. (Paris : Cherbuliez, 1862.) This is rather a huge 



2l6 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

If the history of doctrine is bound to avoid the 
generalisations of the spirit of system, it is not jus- 
tified in going to the other extreme, by following the 
method of indefinite subdivisions, an opposite error 
into which it has too often fallen. How many books 
there are, held in high estimation, in which the doctrinal 
history of an entire period is placed under the titles 
of general chapters, such as the inspiration of the 
Scriptures, the Trinity, redemption. Quotations from the 
Fathers are given heterogeneously, as if all had laboured 
together at the same theological weft and woof! Such 
an arrangement is altogether misleading. In truth, 
a doctrine receives its significance from the atmosphere 
in which it originates, and from its relation to the 
system of which it forms a part. We admit that the 
theologians are ranged in schools and groups when 
the affinity between them is plain ; but nothing but 
confusion is the result, when the plan is so enlarged 
as to comprehend all the various tendencies of a great 
epoch. Our first care, then, will be to mark out clearly 
the different schools of thought, and next to seek in 
their most illustrious representatives, in those who may 
be regarded as their leaders, the central idea around 
which all the other parts of the system are grouped. 
This central thought we shall find to lie always in 
the conception of the relation between man and God, 
which is, in fact, the essential idea of religion; for 

compilation than a history, strictly speaking : it takes the stand- 
point of pure rationalism. It is very unsatisfactory, especially in 
relation to the first centuries. We wonder to find, for example, 
a chapter on Gnosticism, which altogether ignores sources of infor- 
mation recently opened. Evidently the writer has not carried into 
this great subject that thoroughness of scientific study which is the 
glory of Protestant France. 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 217 

religion is but the name for the mode of the relation 
between the creature and his Creator. According as 
this conception implies more or less the harmony 
between the human and the divine, or rather the res- 
toration of that harmony, the entire system will be 
modified in its scope and tendency. The idea of re- 
demption exerts a profound influence upon the whole 
of theology. It is this which determines the notions 
entertained of the person of Christ, and of the union 
of the human and the divine in Him. The great 
question between justification by faith or works, the 
question of the sacraments, and of ecclesiastical autho- 
rity, all depend on the solution given to the first pro- 
blem. In truth, if man is really reconciled to God by 
the sacrifice of Christ, he is delivered from all that 
rose as a barrier between him and heaven. Religion 
w^orks henceforth from within rather than from without. 
The nature of religious authority is changed, and the 
moral and spiritual influence becomes the great factor. 
If, on the other hand, there is no such thing as re- 
demption, man is still in bondage in every sense. It 
is plain, then, that the doctrine of redemption is the 
main spring, the great motive power of the whole dog- 
matic and ecclesiastical organism. The slightest de- 
flection of this centre of gravity is felt throughout the 
entire sphere of religious thought. 

It will be needful for us to consider, in our esti- 
mate of the various religious systems, the influence 
of anterior philosophies. Whether philosophy be re- 
garded with distrust or not, it is still true that it exerts 
an important influence in spiritual things. It creates 
the intellectual language of an age, and introduces 



2l8 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

more or less its own formulae. It is of the utmost 
importance to distinguish in the theology of the 
Fathers, between that which they derive from the 
gospel and that which they have retained from the 
great masters of ancient wisdom.* If, in the ripe age 
of Christianity, Cartesianism could set its stamp upon 
the theology of an entire century, it is not surprising 
that Platonism in its various forms, more or less 
modified, should have pressed heavily upon early 
Christian thought, without, however, absorbing it, 
unless in the form of heresy, f Heresy again is in 
its manner a factor of dogma, or at least of theology, 
whether by the reaction it calls forth, or by the secret 
influence it exercises, subtly diffusing itself through the 
moral atmosphere of the time. Gnostic heresy has 
contributed powerfully by its attacks to strengthen the 
theistic tendency, but it did not escape the influence 
of those too intellectual conceptions of Christianity, 
which transformed it at Alexandria into a divine Gnos- 
ticism, animated indeed with the vital breath of freedom, 
but not preserving sufficiently the character of a work 
of redemption and restoration. The exclusive pre- 
tensions of Judseo-Christianity led Christian theology 
to express, in all its beauty, the grand Christian idea of 
humanity; but without dwelling on the more or less 
rapid retrogression to sacerdotal and theocratic in- 
stitutions, it is clearly to the Judaising spirit we must 
attribute the legal tendency which takes away the sim- 

- See on this subject Ritter's " Histoire de la Philosophie 
Chretienne," vol. vi. 

f M. Vacherot, in his learned work, "Histoire de I'e'cole d'Alex- 
andrie," greatly exaggerates this influence of Platonist philosophy 
on Christian doctrine. 



BOOK II. — GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 219 

plicity of pardon. These transformations and devia- 
tions, however, only become manifest in gradual and 
unequal progression, and do not hinder a large and 
fruitful development of Christian thought, v^hich on 
many points has never been surpassed. As long as the 
Church maintains its original freedom, error finds its 
own correction. It is with religious society as with 
those political systems w^hich acknowledge no irreme- 
diable political evils. Absolutism alone is incurable 
in every sphere, because it sets upon evil the seal of 
an indisputable authority. 

The Church is split up into two great sections. 
The East, which comprehends Greece and Egypt, 
is the country of speculation and of transcendental 
idealism. Here the great schools of philosophy take 
their rise. Here also is the cradle of theology, and 
hence it derives that blending of the speculative with 
the symbolical element by which it is specially cha- 
racterised. The West, which comprises proconsular 
Africa, bears, both in its theology and practice, the 
strong and rough impress of Rome. We shall have 
first to note the antitheses, or, at least, the strongly 
marked differences in the genius of these two great 
Churches. But this division is not adequate to re- 
produce all the variety of theological schools in the 
second and third centuries. Of these we may mention 
four which were of primary importance. In the first 
place we have the Greco-i-Vsiatic school, with Justin 
Martyr at its head ; in the second, the school of Alex- 
andrine Christianity, rendered illustrious by Clement 
and Origen ; thirdly, the Gallio-Asiatic school of 
Irenseus and Hippolytus, which forms the transition 



220 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

between the East and West ; and, lastly, the African 
school, which, after the declamations of its fervid 
apostle, TertuUian, assumes its definite form under 
Cyprian. In this order we shall present the history 
of Christian theology, from Justin Martyr to the paci- 
fication of the Church. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 

The first group of theologians forming a school, or 
at least presenting such a degree of intellectual kin- 
ship as may warrant us in classing them in one cate- 
gory, belongs at once to Asia and Greece. Asiatics by 
birth, they speak the philosophical language of Pla- 
tonism, which exercises a most powerful influence upon 
their mode of thought, without casting doubt on their 
sincerity as Christians. They are distinguished from 
the Alexandrine school, only as the sketch is distin- 
guished from the finished work ; they hold in truth, 
in principle, and in germ, the grand ideas which were 
developed in the writings of Clement and of Origen. 
They have also the same imperfections in common, as 
we shall show, after giving an exposition of their 
system. 

§ I. The Letter to Diognetus. 

On the threshold of this period we meet with a most 
remarkable work, which lifts us above the formulae 
of religious science into the domain of direct intuition. 
The " Letter to Diognetus," which has come down to 
us without the name of the writer, is one of the most 
precious treasures of Christian antiquity. It evidently 
does not belong to the first century, for it has not the 



222 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

apostolic impress; and the manner in which Judaism 
is condemned in toto, is characteristic of the conflicts 
of the following age. We might suppose the writer 
to be a Marcionite, having cast off the vain specula- 
tions of Gnosticism ; a Paulinist, somewhat extreme 
in his reaction against the synagogue, who failed to 
distinguish, as Paul did, between the Judaism of 
the prophets and that of the rabbis. The ardent en- 
thusiasm of the unknown writer for the new religion, 
renders him unjust to that which preceded it. He thus 
bears to us a sublime echo of the school of Ephesus, 
of that doctrine of love which was the final utterance, 
and, as it were, the legacy of the apostolic age, but 
without the character of moderation which belongs 
only to the truly creative era in the history of the 
Church. That which constitutes the charm, the in- 
comparable beauty of the " Letter to Diognetus," is 
its entire avoidance of the language of the schools ; its 
thought and feeling spring from a common source. 
Hence the simplicity and freshness of the exposition. 
We seem to breathe in the pure, luminous atmosphere 
of early morning, at the dawning of a day whose sky 
will be often overcast with mists and clouds. And yet 
this letter is the introduction to the theology of the 
second century. The spirit of Justin Martyr is so 
strongly marked in these pages, that they have been 
often attributed to him, a supposition which, however, 
cannot be really sustained, not only because of the 
difference of the style, but also on account of many 
very characteristic divergences of doctrine.* 

* We do not refer to the last two chapters, which are an evident 
interpolation. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 223 

The "Letter to Diognetus " was designed to estab- 
lish the claims of Evangelical religion in the pagan 
mind. The writer pursues a historical method. He 
shows what was the part filled by this religion in the 
history of humanity, and how it was the divinely pre- 
pared climax of the long and obscure period extending 
from the fall of man to the coming of Christ. Passing 
by the apologetic point of view, and all that relates 
to the delineation of the Christian life, we shall en- 
deavour to show what was the doctrinal idea of this 
writing. Religion is presented to us in the twofold 
character of a revelation and a redemption. True to 
the genius of Greece, the writer dwells mainly on the 
first character. To dispel the darkness of ignorance, 
to enlighten the human mind by the true knowledge 
of God, is the essential object of the Gospel and of the 
Word, of whom the divine book is the perfect mani- 
festation. Truth is for Christians neither an earthly 
discovery nor a perishable doctrine ; nor, again, is it the 
depository of mere human mysteries. " The Almighty 
God, Creator of all things, the invisible God, has sent 
it down from heaven. His holy and incomprehensible 
Word has come among men, and sought a fixed abode 
in their hearts."* Before His coming none had suc- 
ceeded in finding the knowledge of God, as is proved 
by the gross worship of idolatrous nations, and by the 
vain imaginations of the philosophers.! Judaism re- 
ceives no higher meed than paganism, for if it had 
some knowledge of the true God, it yet imagined that 
He had need of material gifts, and offered to Him 

* 'Ey/carf(Tri7pt?€ toiq KapSiaig avruiv. (" Letter to DiognetuS," ch. 7, 
Hefele edition. Tubingen, 1847.) f Ibid., chap. 8. 



224 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

sacrifices of blood. The true light, then, came only 
with Jesus Christ. This light does not merely illu- 
minate the reason, it warms the heart and saves the 
lost sinner. Christianity is a redemption, while it is also 
a revelation, or rather it is the revelation of redemption. 
*'God has not hated us ; He has not been mindful of our 
wickedness ; He has borne with our sins, and has given 
His own Son as the price of our redemption — *the 
just for the unjust.' Righteousness alone could cover 
sin. O sweet exchange, by which the iniquity of many 
is hidden by One who is righteous, and the righteous- 
ness of one justifies many sinners !"f No exact doc- 
trinal statement can be drawn from these words ; they 
contain the simple affirmation of the salvation of man- 
kind by the work of Jesus Christ. His righteousness 
has covered our sins, and has redeemed us. The writer 
goes no further. There is no trace in the "Letter to 
Diognetus " of a satisfaction of the Divine anger ; for 
God, it is said, did not hate us. The Son, then, had 
not to endure a curse which had no existence ; He has 
simply covered us with His holiness as with a shield. 
The idea of sacrifice, properly so called, is not grasped 
by the author. Hence the severity of his condemna- 
tion of the Jewish sacrifices. He even goes so far 
as to regard them as superstitious acts, by which the 
Jews sought to purchase by a gift the favour of God.* 
Evidently, if the writer had admitted an expiation in 
the true sense, he would have connected the work of 
Christ with the sanguinary rites of the old covenant. 
It is not possible to fill up this gap in the system 
except by additions from other sources. The substitu- 
* " Letter to Diognetus," chap. 9. f Ibid., chap. 3. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 225 

tion of the Righteous One for sinners is clearly taught, 
but not His direct condemnation by God in the sinner's 
stead. The death of the Son is a proof of the love 
of the Father for us, and nothing more. The Cross 
speaks only of love and of holiness. We do not pre- 
tend that this explanation is adequate, but it is the 
explanation given by the " Epistle to Diognetus." 

The idea of God is therein developed altogether 
according to the thought of St. John. Omnipotence 
and omniscience are not the primary attributes of the 
Deity. God is more than the Most High and the All- 
Wise. He is, in His essence, love. " To gain the 
mastery over one's neighbour, to crush him in his 
weakness, to acquire wealth and do violence to in- 
feriors, none of these things bring happiness to man ; 
it is not thus he can imitate God. These things 
have no affinity with the Divine Majesty. If thou 
lovest thou shalt be the imitator of His mercy."* In 
creating, He has no other motive than the good of His 
creature ; the creature is therefore a work of His love, 
and His glory is to be loved. He has been ever the 
same ; He cannot change now or in any future time ; 
He will be always kind, good, incapable of anger ; He 
alone is good.t 

The " Letter to Diognetus " affirms in explicit terms 

that the Word is neither an angel, nor one of those 

beings who govern terrestrial things, or to whom is 

entrusted the administration of the heavenly world; 

but that He is the Creator of heaven and earth. | The 

"^ " Letter to Diognetus," chap. 10. 

f OvroQ i]v fikv del toiovtoq, kol eari, h:al tarai, xpw^'^Q '^"f" dya9ug teal 
dopyrjTOQ Kal d\i]9)]g. (Ibid., chap. 8.) 

X M'Tuv Tuv Tix^'iTi]i' Kca c^j-uovpyiv tCjv 'oXlov. (Ibid., chap. 7.) 

16 



226 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Word is thus distinct from every creature. The writer 
does not enter further into the Divine ontology, and he 
even seems to confound the second and third persons 
of the Trinity in the passage which we have quoted 
as to the dwelHng of the Word in the human heart. 
The Son knew the purpose of the Father to save the 
world ; He was one with Him in the mystery of the 
eternal love. Although, as we have seen, the "Letter 
to Diognetus" rejects all the culture of the ancients, 
not recognising in it one gleam of truth, it does not 
nevertheless assume a radical opposition between the 
human and divine nature. No ; man is a divine being, 
who, by love, has such a participation in the character 
of his Creator, that he becomes God. Every be- 
nefactor is in truth the God of those whom he has 
benefited.* Faith is the inward eye which sees God. 
Moral freedom is eloquently asserted, in opposition to 
Gnostic fatalism. "The Son was not sent, as might 
be thought, to rule with a rod of iron, and to inaugurate 
a reign of terror. No ; He came in clemency and 
gentleness. God sent Him, like a king sending his 
son, who is also a king ; for He sent Him as a God 
among men to save and to persuade, not to do violence, 
for violence is not of God."t How, in truth, can love 
be other than liberty ? This respect for human freedom 
explains the delay in the mission of the Redeemer. 
A moral correspondence was needed to be established 
between Him and the race of man. He came when 
mankind had had time to prove experimentally its 
own wretchedness and powerlessness to save itself. 

* Qedg ylvETca ruiv XafitavovTiov. (" Letter to Diognetus," chap. lo.) 
f Ibid., chap. 7. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 227 

Such a theology cannot favour a system of external 
authority. Hence all the episcopal pretensions so 
largely advanced at this period are not even adverted 
to. The whole Christian life is placed under the law 
of liberty. The writer has formed too poor a concep- 
tion of the providential character of the old law, to 
desire to assign it any place in the gospel economy. 
He treats with ridicule the prescriptive observance of 
Sabbath and fast. The current of his thought, as 
well in its weakness and faultiness as in its truth and 
strength, is such as to alienate him absolutely from 
all hierarchical and sacramental tendencies : he is 
rather led to a mysticism full of stern moral purpose. 
This pure and gentle breeze was not strong enough 
to fill the sails of the vessel. The paramount influence 
must necessarily belong to more positive and aggres- 
sive schools. The " Letter to Diognetus " remains an 
isolated monument, towering grandly over all that 
surrounds it. 

§ II. Tlie Theology of Justin Martyr * 

That which is rightly called the theolog^^ of Justin 
presents singular contrasts, as we may have anticipated 
from the imperfectness of his apologetic method. This 
generous thinker, who establishes so clearly the re- 
lationship between the human soul and God, and sets 
aside dualistic fatalism in all its stages, falls neverthe- 
less under the influence of Platonism, and even adopts, 
in some measure, the allegorical exegesis of the rabbis. 
If he had followed the truly scriptural inspiration of 

* See Semisch's admirable monograph, '• Justin dor Mart.," 
vol. ii. Breslau, 1840. 

16* 



228 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the '* Letter to Diognetus," while disengaging its 
thought from the fetters of the Greek philosophy, he 
would have been led, by the most simple process of 
deduction, to place the eternity of the Word on its true 
basis. In fact, if God is by His very essence eternal 
love, He must needs have an object to love apart from 
and above the world, and this object can be no other 
than the Word. Thus understood, the Word appears 
as the necessary complement of the divine life. With- 
out the Son, God would not be the Father; He would 
not be essential love. The " Letter to Diognetus" did 
not draw this conclusion, because it was in no way me- 
taphysical; but the idea would have forced itself upon 
a mind so logical as that of Justin, if he had only 
followed out this precious clue. Unhappily, while 
acknowledging fully that the gospel is the manifesta- 
tion of the Divine mercy, he has not given to love 
a central place in his theology. God is to him, as to 
the more or less modified Platonism of his time, essen- 
tially the Absolute, the Incomprehensible. Hence the 
Logos is the revealing organ, the Word, or the utter- 
ance of the Divine mind, rather than the only and 
well-beloved Son. The Incomprehensible Absolute is 
complete in Himself; He needed nothing but to know 
Himself. He is under no necessity to seek His own 
manifestation in a being distinct from Himself. He 
may at will produce or beget such a being, or He may 
remain self-contained. The distinction of the Divine 
Persons is not, then, an eternal necessity of the abso- 
lute existence ; it is, as it were, an accidental circum- 
stance, having a beginning. His origin may indeed 
be traced back to far distant ages, before the creation 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 229 

of the world, but He is not eternal. This is the first 
error of the system. We shall see how long it weighed 
upon Christian theology. This is the explanation of 
the too intellectual character of the whole doctrine of 
Justin, and of his depreciation of the redemption. The 
Word being in its essence a revealer, the essential point 
is the manifestation of the incomprehensible, and re- 
ligion is thus, primarily, a transcendental science. 

The too abstract theodicy of Justin comes out in 
passages like the following : " The ineffable Father, 
who is the Lord of the universe, abides in the region 
where He dwells, and nothing escapes Him of all that 
may be seen and heard: not that He uses eyes or ears, 
but by His indescribable power He perceives and is 
cognisant of all things. He knows no such thing as 
movement. No place, not the whole world itself can 
contain Him, who is before the world was. How, 
then, being such an One, could He speak to a man, 
or be seen by him on an imperceptible point of earth ?* 
The people could not behold His glory on Sinai, even 
when it was only reflected from His servant Moses. 
The priest dared not stand erect before the temple 
built by Solomon, when the Ark had been placed in it. 
Not Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, nor any man has seen 
the Father, the ineffable Lord of the universe, and 
of Jesus Christ Himself."t He alone has been visible 
who, according to the counsel and pleasure of God, 
is at once God and the Son, and is called also the 
Angel of the Lord fulfilling His will. He is named 

* UCjq av ovv 7] XaX)]aeie rrpoQ nva r] 6(p9eir] rivl. (Justin, " Dial, cum 
Tryph.," chap. 127. " Opera," p. 357. Cologne Edition, 1688.) 

t "OvTS dWog dv9pu)7r(xjv eJde tov Trarepa Kai appi]TOv Kvpiov tu>v Trdvrujv. 
(Ibid., chap. 127.) 



230 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the Word, because He conveys to men the mind of 
God.* Thus does Justin formulate with all possible 
clearness the fundamental distinction made by Philo 
between the invisible and the manifested God. The 
hidden, ineffable God is alone the absolute, the first 
principle, the Most High. 

Decided and exact as Justin is in his affirmation of 
the divinity of Jesus Christ, he does not admit either 
His complete equality with the Father, nor even His 
eternal pre-existence, at least as a distinct person. He 
affirms His subordination in the most positive manner. 
The Son is in the second rank.t He converses with 
Abraham under the oak at Mamre, as the messenger 
of the Most High God, who is in heaven, and fulfils 
the charge entrusted to Him.]: He it is again who 
appears to Moses in the burning bush.§ The supreme 
God could not appear in one corner of the world. He 
manifests Himself by His Son, who is the ever ready 
and obedient executor of His will.|| All the theophanies 
of the Old Testament refer to Him, since He is the 
revealed God, the Word of the hidden and ineffable 
Jehovah. If He is one with His Father in will. He 
is, so to speak, numerically distinguished from Him.^ 
This subordination is the more readily to be understood 
since the distinct and personal existence of the Son 
had a beginning. God, before He called any creatures 
into being, begat of Himself a power, which is called 

'^ Justin, " Dial, cum Tryph.," chap. 128. 

t 'Ev hvrepc^ X^'^P?" ("ApoL," ii. p. 70.) Mgr. Ginouilhac vainly 
endeavours to weaken the force of this expression (ii. p. 115). 

X 'O Kal Oeoq Kai Kvpiog r»p tv ToXg ovpavoig vTrrjperuJv. (" Dial. Cum 
Tryph.," chap. 56, p. 279.) 

§ " ApoL," ii. p. 95. II " Dial, cum Tryph.," chap. 127. 

^ 'kpidfii^ oKKa ov yvdjixy. (Ibid., chap. 86, p. 276.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 23I 

by the Holy Spirit the glory of the Lord, or the 
Son, or Wisdom, or the Angel of the Lord, or God ; 
or again, the Lord and the Word, sometimes again, the 
Head over all things. He it is who appeared in human 
form to Joshua, the son of Nun. He may bear these 
various names, because He is ever fulfilling the will 
of the Father, and because He was begotten by the 
will of the Father.* Justin compares this generation 
to the production of language by the lips of man, 
which in no way diminishes the inward power from 
which it proceeds, while it gives it nevertheless a dis- 
tinct form. The Word is likened again to fire, which 
diminishes in nothing the central source from which 
it springs, though it shoots upwards in a vivid flame. t 
The Word is the Son truly produced by the Father, 
and who was with the Father before any created life 
began. To Him, as to the creative power, the words 
were addressed : " Let us make man in our own 
image." Solomon recognised Him as the Wisdom or 
the reason of God.t Does it then follow that this 
Word, who was from all eternity hidden with God, 
was only called into distinct existence at the moment 
of creation, or for the purpose of creation ? Such 
seems to be the drift of the following words : " The 
Father of the universe has no name, not having 
been begotten. But it is not thus with His Son, 
with Him who is called the Son by way of pre-emi- 

* 'Apx^iv irpb TrdvTOJv twv KriTixdriov 6 Qebg yEyevv7]KS dvvafiiv tlvcl t^ 
iavTOv XoyLKi)v, ttots St vibg, ttote Sk "Siofia, TTore Se "AyyeXog, ttote dk Oeog, 
TTore de Kvpiog Kal Aoyog' £%£t yap iravTa Trpo(yovoixdL,i.aQai, Ik tov vTrripenlv 
Tc^ rrarpLKi^ jSovXIjixaTL, Kai Ik tov ciTrb tov TruTpbg 9e\}'](reL yeysviiaOai. 
(" Dial, cum Tryph,," chap. 62, p. 284.) f Ibid., chap. 64, p. 284. 

;J; TovTO Tb Ttf bvTL (XTro TOV TTttTpbg 7rpo€Xt]6ev ykvvi^fxa, Trpb TrdvTutv riov 
7roir]ixdT(i)v (rvv)]v r^p Trarpi. (Ibid., chap. 62, p. 285.) 



232 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

nence. This Word, who was one with the Father 
before the creation, and wlio was begotten when 
in the beginning God created and formed all things by 
Him — this Word has a name."* Evidently the God 
without a name, the Incomprehensible Absolute, only 
emerged from the mysterious obscurity of His being 
at the moment of creation. Then the Word within 
took an outward and distinct form, at once calling 
beings into life, and revealing to them the ineffable 
Father. This doctrine is developed with incomparably 
greater clearness by the successor of Justin, but it is 
an inherent part of his system. He carefully avoided 
everything approaching the idea of emanation, by as- 
cribing the generation of the Word to an act of the 
Divine will, and not to a sort of metaphysical neces- 
sity. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is mentioned 
rather than developed by Justin. He places Him in 
the third rank, and thus marks His subordination still 
more decidedly. t He even goes so far as to identify 
Him with the Word. J In a paragraph of a text of 
Isaiah, which runs thus : " I am the Lord, and my 
glory will I not give to another" (Isa. xlii. 8), Justin 

* "O \6yoQ irpb tu)V TroiTjficiTOJv kcu avvMV Kcd yevvdofievog, ore rrjv ap')(f}v 
^L avTov Trdvra i/cncre Kai iKoafirjae. (" Dial, cum Tryph.," chap. 
62.) Dorner seems to us not to give to the word ore its true 
meaning, and arbitrarily changes it into on, in disputing the coinci- 
dence between the hypostatic production of the Word and the 
creation. (Work cited, p. 423.) These texts are decisive in setting 
aside the absolutely Athanasian interpretation given to the system 
of Justin by the writers we have quoted. We have here not a 
mere apologetic accommodation, but a positive affirmation of the 
subordination of the Son to the Father, in connection with the 
formal negation of the eternal pre-existence of the Word as a 
person. f "ApoL," ii. p. 60. 

X To TTvevfxa ovv ovdkv aXX.o vorjaai Okfiig, j) rov Xoyov. (Ibid., ii . 

P- 75-) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 233 

shows that God can only give His honour to Him who 
is the Light of the nations, that is, to Jesus Christ.* 
If he had beHeved in the distinct divinity of the 
Holy Spirit, he would not have used such language 
as this, which excludes the adoration of any divine 
being save the Father and the Son. We see how 
vague is as yet the Trinitarian idea. 

The universe is the work of the Word of God. The 
moral creature is its Alpha and Omega. Our world 
was made with a view to man,t a being in whose 
nature we may, with St. Paul, distinguish three com- 
pact parts — body, soul, and spirit. j He stands in an 
altogether peculiar relation to God and His Son, for 
he participates in the Divine nature ; the higher life 
in him is the germ of the Word, that spermatic Word 
which is the most original and suggestive trait in 
Justin's " Apology."§ Liberty is his appanage ; it is, 
moreover, the very law of the moral world — its essen- 
tial condition.il Evil is not traced to a natural fatality, 
as by the Gnostics, nor is it identified with matter ; 
it is a revolt of the will, an act of disobedience, the 
abuse of liberty. '*We do not allow," says Justin, 
" that fate rules the actions of men, or the events of 
their life. Good and evil alike depend on every man's 
free choice." The angels were also created free and 
responsible beings like men. Those who have become 
demons have only themselves and the determinations 

- " Dial, cum Tryph.," p. 289. f " ApoL," i. 43. 

I " Frag, de Resurrect./' sec. 13. (Grabe, " Spicileg.," ii. p. 192.) 
§ To tixfpvTQV TvavTi yepEL avOpcoTrojv awkpua tov Xoyov. (''Apol.," ii. 

p. 46.) 

II Avre^ovdiov rwv dyysXwv ytvog, Kai nhv dvOpwrrcov t^v cipx^v iTroa'jaev 
6 Oedg. (Ibid., i. p. 45.) 



234 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

of their own will to blame. If liberty be denied, there 
can be no longer good or evil, merit or demerit, virtue 
or vice. How, then, can it be explained that the same 
man often changes his course of conduct? God has not 
created man like animals or trees, which have no free- 
dom of choice; neither rewards nor punishments would 
have any application to actions which are mechanical 
or compulsory.* The moral law, however obscured by 
the darkness of hell, still asserts its universal sway, and 
every upright conscience bows before it. 

It is the violation of this sacred law which has 
formed the dark kingdom of evil oppressing us on 
every side. Justin attaches the greatest importance 
to the part taken by the demons in the history of 
humanity. Without at all calling in question the fall 
of Adam,t he dwells far more upon the deplorable 
degradation which has followed in the track of idolatry, 
and this he ascribes to the power of demons born of 
adulterous relations between the angels and the 
daughters of men. Thus has a great catastrophe been 
brought upon our earth, for these angels were charged 
by God with the guardianship of earth and of mankind. 
They were His delegates and vicegerents. Their cor- 
ruption has made a radical revolution in the spiritual 
order. The demons are beings endowed with a mys- 
terious but real power, who are capable of troubling 
the imaginations of men by means of visions and 
sorceries. They have thus brought men into bondage, 
and succeeded in securing their worship for themselves, 
as the false gods of the ancient world. Paganism is 

* Ou yap ojTTrep rd dXXa, olov SsvSpa Kal Trtrpd-Troda, fxrjdtv Swdfieva 
Trpoaipsaei Trpdrrsiv, liroirjGev 6 Oedg rbv dvBpojirov. (" ApoL," ii. p. 8l.) 
f " Dial, cum Tryph.," chap. 124, p. 352. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 235 

therefore an infernal power, full of reality, working 
upon our world for its destruction.* 

In idolatry that power of evil is concentrated which 
exercises so odious a tyranny over the human race. 
Mankind, as a whole, is, as it were, the prey of a de- 
moniacal power, whose mysterious influence is to be 
cancelled by another no less mysterious. Herein con- 
sists mainly the work of redemption. It is, first of all, 
a glorious victory over the demons, and consequently 
over sin ; its results are the emancipation and sancti- 
fication of the human soul. In order to effect this, the 
Word became incarnate in Jesus, born by miracle of 
the Virgin. This appearing is not transitory, like the 
theophanies of the Old Testament, but final, t It is 
not partial, as in the individuals of human race 
who have the germ of the Word within them. It is 
absolute; the whole Word was manifested in Christ. t 
There exists indeed a real aflinity between Him and 
humanity, for He renders it truly divine: "Just as 
from one man, Jacob — surnamed Israel — one whole race 
has received its name, so have we received ours from 
Jesus, by whom we are born unto God. We are called, 
and in truth we are, the children of God."§ In order 
to give more precision to this thought, he quotes Psalm 
Ixxxii., in which men are called gods, and concludes 
with these words : " Power has been granted to men 
to become gods and the sons of the Most High."|| It 
follows that the incarnate Word realises in all its 

-'' " ApoL," i. pp. 44, 56. f " Dial, cum Tryph.," chaps. 30-32, 
X Tov TTavroQ \6yov. (" ApoL," i. p. 46.) 

§ Kat I'^jXHQ cnro tov Yevijoavrog I'mag e'lg Oebv Xpicrrov 9eov rsKva aXrjOivd 
KaXovi.ie9a Kat Icfih. (" Dial, cum Tryph.," chap. 123, p. 353.) 
II Ibid., chap. 124. 



236 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

fulness the idea or ideal of humanity. Justin does not 
enter into any explanation of the union of the divine 
and human in the Redeemer; he simply affirms it. He 
acknowledges Him as the complete representative of 
the new humanity ; so that His death is the death 
of the power of corruption, which clings to our 
body since the Fall, and His resurrection becomes 
our resurrection also. Corruption having crept into 
human nature, it was necessary that the Redeemer 
should put away the polluting substance. Now this 
could only be done on condition that He who was 
essential life should join Himself to the element which 
had been thus polluted, and should destroy the corrup- 
tion, that so the presence of the immortal element 
might preserve that which had been defiled.* '' The 
Word therefore assumed a body, in order to deliver us 
from the corruption which had fastened itself upon our 
nature. Thus upon the cross Jesus vanquished death. 
Rising again, He gave us in His own person the resur- 
rection and eternal life."t We are truly identified 
with Him, and become bone of His bone and flesh of 
His flesh. 

Upon the nature of the work of redemption itself, 
Justin's views are indistinct. He commences by recog- 
nising the reality of the humiliation of the Word, His 
conformity to our nature, in all save sin, by His sub- 
jection to the conditions of gradual development and 
suffering. He, like all the fathers, quotes the prin- 

* 'H Kara (pvaiv Z,wri TrpoaeTrXaKT] t<^ Ti)v <p9opdv Se^aiJisvq), a(paviZ,ov<Ja fisv 
T))v (pOopdv. (Grabe, " Spicileg.," ii. p. 172. "Ex Sermone contra 
Gentes.") 

f AiSovg r)[uv Iv eavT<p ttjv Ik veKpOJv dvdaraaiv, (Ibid., i. p. 1 7 8. 
" De resurrect.") 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 237 

cipal texts in which St. Paul speaks of the efficacy 
of the death of Jesus ; but that death really signifies, 
in his view, nothing more than a victory over the 
powers of darkness. This is what he calls the mystery 
of the Cross, the indication of which he traces not only 
in the types of the Old Testament, but also in the most 
simple popular usages.* " We ask of God," he says 
to Trypho, "to keep us by Jesus Christ from the 
power of the demons, to whom we once rendered 
homage. We invoke His aid as our Redeemer, and 
the demons tremble before the power of His name. 
Adjured by this name of Jesus, who was crucified under 
Pontius Pilate, the procurator of the Jews, they obey 
us, so that it may be evident to all that the Father 
has given us the power to bring the demons into sub- 
jection to the economy of His passion." t 

Upon the cross the type of the brazen serpent found 
its antitype. The holy Victim there vanquished the 
old serpent. Here is the profound mystery of the 
defeat of the serpent who caused the revolt of Adam.t 
Justin calls it the mystery of the wood of the cross. § 
There the powers of darkness were exorcised, the spell 
of their sorceries was broken. The cross is again 
compared to the wood by which Elisha drew up the 
axe which had fallen into the water : it draws us 
up out of the deep, into which our sins had plunged 

* "Dial, cum Tryph.," chaps. 90, 91. 

f "QcTTE Kcd TO. Saijxovia v7rord(TGea9ai t<{) ovojxari avrov Kal Ty tov 
yEvoix'svov irdOovg avrov olKovofiig,. (Ibid., chap. 30, p. 247.) 

X Mvartjpiov iKripvaas, di oi) KaraXvav /lev rrjv Siva/jLiv rov ocpeojg rov icai 
T~)]v 7rapd€a(TLV viro tov ASdn ytvkadai Ipyaaajxsvov, iKr^pvaae. (Ibid., chap. 
91, p. 322.) 

§ ^vXov TovTo [xv(TT)]piov TOV cTttvpov. (Ibid., chap. 138, p. 367.) 



238 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

US.* Justin contents himself with only affirming the 
triumph of Jesus over Satan ; the idea of a ransom paid 
to our tyrant has not yet presented itself, nor does he 
speak of a ransom demanded by God. If he dwells 
upon the sufferings of the Redeemer, if, to use his 
own beautiful expression, he sees in these the charac- 
teristic mark of the Christ, those sufferings are not 
in his view a sacrifice for sin ; the death of Christ 
is not an expiation, properly so called. His interpre- 
tation of the Jewish sacrifices, in which he sees only 
the punishment of the idolatry of the chosen people, 
shows that he has not understood the deep need of 
reparation, which will not let the human conscience 
rest, and of which the Levitical worship was the 
sublime expression ; while, at the same time, it held 
forth to view, under a transparent veil, the great 
expiation of Calvary. *'The sacrifices," said Justin, 
" were on account of the sins of the people and their 
idolatry; but no real necessity could be urged in sup- 
port of them." t It was the adoration of the golden 
calf, in his view, which led to the distinction between 
animals clean and unclean. All is then accidental, 
external, in these fundamental institutions of Mo- 
saism, which had, however, no meaning at all, except 
as expressing the need of reparation and expiation. If 
he makes an exception in the case of the paschal 
lamb, he does not regard even that as a victim in 
the proper sense of the word, but as a figure of the 
Christ-deliverer, whose blood saves us because it was 
shed in His victorious conflict with the demons. J He 
only compares Him to the goat Azazel, because 

* " Dial, cum Tryph.," ch. 86. f Ibid., ch. 22. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 239 

Upon Him rested the execration of the Jewish people.* 
Nothing more can be drawn from his declaration that 
Christ is a sacrifice for all those who repent. t The 
crucifixion is indeed an immolation, w^hich brings sal- 
vation to us, but that immolation is not a debt paid to 
God and to Satan ; it is a victory over hell. In order 
to achieve this triumph and to heal us, Jesus must 
needs take part in our griefs,]: and primarily in that 
death whose dart was broken in His breast. But in 
achieving this conquest over hell. He never descended 
into hell for a single instant, nor did He, in any true 
sense, so experience the anger of His Father, that 
His sufferings might be set in the balance against 
our sins. Justin plainly asserts that God gave His 
Son up to endure cruel anguish for us. The most 
bitter drop in this cup of anguish was that of which 
Paul speaks, when he says : " Cursed is every one that 
hangeth on a tree." But the curse which rested upon 
this holy Victim in no way resembled that w^hich falls 
upon the violator of the law. "Just as God did not 
contradict Himself, when He ordered the serpent of 
brass to be made (though He had forbidden the making 
of images in a general manner), so there is no contra- 
diction between the declaration of the law% that every 
one that hangeth on a tree is accursed, and the fact 
that no curse is pronounced on the Christ of God, who 
was to be the Saviour of all those who had committed 
acts worthy of condemnation." § All men. Gentiles and 

* 'Qq dTTOTrofiTraTov avrbv Traperreii'ipavTO o'l Trpeatvrepoi. (" Dial. Cum 
Tryph.," chap. 40, p. 259.) 

f npO(T0opa ^jv VTrep Trdvrojv tCjv fizravotiv (iovKojxkviov. (Ibid., ch. 40.) 

\ Ibid., chap. 103. 

§ 'Ow/c tri de Kcd Kara rov Xpiarov rov 6eov Kardpa tctlrai, ^t ov GwZ,ti 
TrdvraQ rovg Kardpag d^ia Trpd^avrag. (Ibid., chap. 95, p. 322.) 



240 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Jews, have justly incurred the Divine malediction. If 
upon Jesus a curse was laid for them, it was assuredly 
not that which would have justly come upon them by 
direct visitation of God. 

" These words of the law, Cursed is every one that 
hangeth on a tree,"" Justin expressly says, " do not 
confirm our hope in the Crucified One in this sense, 
that the curse which visits Him comes from God ; 
but they are a declaration in the name of God 
that you all, and those who are like you, will fail 
to recognise in the crucified One, Him who is before 
all else, the eternal priest of God, destined to be 
both King and Christ. You may see with your own 
eyes the fulfilment of this prophecy, for in your syna- 
gogues you call all those accursed who bear the name 
of Jesus ; while the Gentiles, passing from insults to 
injuries, put to death any one who simply / says, * I 
am a Christian.' If Jesus Christ then has borne the 
curse of all men, it is in the sense of being made the 
object of universal execration."* After this commentary 
on the words of Justin, given by himself, there is no 
more room for doubt. t The cry of mysterious deso- 
lation uttered by Jesus on the cross, has no more 
special meaning than the other expressions of His 

* Kai yap ra dpriiikva Iv t(^ vofii^, oti ETriKardpaTog ttolq b Kpefxdfievog 
Ittl %vKov, ov)(^ (jjg tov Oeov Karapo)fievov tovtov tov earavpojixevov, dW ojg 
TrpoeiTTovTog tov Oeov to ixp' vfiu>v irdvTiov Kai tuiv bfiolojv vjxiv jurj liTLaTafievov, 
TOVTOV elvai tov irpo irdvTixiv ovTa. (" Dial, cum Tryph.," chap. 96, 

p. 323-) 

f The quotations already given suffice to foil absolutely the 
attempt made by M. Pozzy, in his historical work on the " Doctrine 
of Redemption," to connect Justin's idea with the traditional ortho- 
doxy of our own day. Justin emphatically denies that Jesus was 
in any sense whatever the object of the Father's curse ; the curse 
of man is all that is intended by the expressions used. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 24I 

soul's anguish; and the prayer which mingles with His 
groans is only a sublime lesson, teaching us to flee 
to God in the hour of death, and to ask Him to deliver 
us from the dark and evil angel.* It follows that, 
in his view, redemption is the great and mysterious 
battle gained by the incarnate and crucified Word over 
Satan and his armies, in the dark night of Calvary. 
Salvation preserves indeed its character of reality ; it 
is not simply a declaration, it is dependent on the 
death of Christ, which is not a mere symbol, but a real 
work of Divine love. Justin thus holds the great fact 
of the Gospel faith, incomplete as is his conception 
of it ; but this does not justify any in attributing to 
him ideas which do not belong to him, and which 
did not make their appearance in theology until a much 
later period. 

The resurrection of Christ occupies a large place 
in the writings of Justin. t Although he uses freely 
the texts of St. Paul on the appropriation of salvation, 
it is certain that he uses them in a strangely altered 
sense. How could it be otherwise ? The inadequacy 
of his conception of redemption must necessarily be 
manifested in his idea of faith. When the work of 
Christ is considered as the complete re-establishment 
of our relation with God, by the redeeming sacrifice, 
nothing remains for man but to ratify that which has 
been accomplished for him on the cross, and to unite 
himself with this new humanity which has found grace 
in the eyes of the Lord. The act of faith which, to 
use the expression of St. Paul, plants us together with 
Jesus in His crucifixion and resurrection, makes our 
'-!= "Dial, cum Tryph.," chap. 105. f Ibid., chaps. 106, 107. 

17 



242 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

own all that He has endured and achieved for us. 
But this is not so when His work is conceived as a 
simple victory over the powers of darkness. We are 
indeed freed from their yoke ; but we have, by our own 
efforts, to win the favour of God for ourselves. Jewish 
legalism enters by this breach made in the Christian 
system of morality. Justin Martyr is upheld on this 
slippery foothold by his true Christian feeling, and he 
joyfully repeats the grand statements of justifying faith 
which abound in the epistles of the apostle of the 
Gentiles. Nevertheless the discrepancy of thought is 
patent.* It is especially manifest in the view taken by 
Justin of the relations of the Old and New Covenant. 

Judging of his system from without, and superfi- 
cially, we should be ready to say none ever carried 
further than he the opposition to Judaeo-Christianity. 
He energetically repudiates all that belongs to the 
rites and observances of Judaism ; he professes the 
broadest universalism, lowers all national barriers, and 
openly avows that the children of Abraham have no 
longer any peculiar religious prerogative, but that 
the Church is the Israel of God. He as strongly denies 
the existence of any special priesthood, declaring that 
every man is a priest of Jesus Christ ; he will not 
recognise any holy day, any more than he 'will admit 
a holy caste. The Lord's day has never, in his view, 
been hallowed in lieu of the Jewish Sabbath. The 
sanctuary, where alone sacrifice might be offered, has 
for ever perished. Christians are the temple of God, 
and all ordinances concerning purifications and wash- 
ings are among the old things passed away. Spiritual 

* See on this point Ritschl's " Altcathol. Kirche," p. 228, et scq. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 243 

fasting, which consists in abstinence from evil, has 
taken the place of the material fast, and sacrifices 
of blood have vanished before the living sacrifice of 
the soul, as circumcision has given place to baptism. 
On all these points Justin asserts the supremacy of 
evangelical spirituality. "We are," he says, "the spi- 
ritual Israel, brought to God by the crucified Christ.* 
A new circumcision has become necessary, and you 
glory only in that which is in the flesh. The new law 
teaches us to observe a perpetual Sabbath, and you 
only consecrate to God a single day.t When you have 
eaten unleavened bread you think you have fulfilled 
the law of God; yet the Lord our God takes no pleasure 
in such observances. If there is among you a false 
swearer, a thief, who forsakes his evil way ; if an 
adulterer repents and turns to God, then may you have 
a true and joyful Sabbath-keeping to the Lord. Put 
away from you all wrath, and envy, and covetousness.J 
Eat that unleavened bread which consists in ceasing 
from sin." 

After such utterances as these, it may well be asked, 
where was the Judaising spirit in such a man ? With 
regard to outward institutions, beyond question he was 
absolutely free from it ; but in the tenor and governing 
principle of his doctrine it w^as no less evident. In 
truth, he presents Christianity rather as a new law 
than as the covenant of grace and free pardon. Doubt- 
less moral obligation is not relaxed by the gospel, since 

* 'laparikiTiKov to aXi]divbvy 7rvsv[xaTiK6v. (" Dial, cum Tryph.," chap. 
II, p. 229.) 

f ^atiariZeLV vfxdg 6 Kaivbg vof^iOQ hairavTOQ iQkXuj Kai v}xhq n'lav 
apyovvT^Q r}}ikpav, evae€e~iv doKsiTe. (Ibid., chap. 12.) 

I Ibid., chap. 12, pp. 18-25. 

17 * 



244 '^HE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

it demands of us holiness. The law of liberty is the 
perfect law, but it is distinguished from the old law, in 
that it connects the moral life with a salvation already 
accomplished, and does not require it as, in any sense 
or degree, the discharge of our debt towards God ; 
a discharge which the sinner has no power to 
offer, and the futile endeavour after which will only 
plunge him into deep distress. This was the point 
on which Justin failed. Jesus Christ, according to his 
teaching, came rather to reveal to us a new law, by 
fulfilling which we may make ourselves acceptable to 
God, than to bring us a full deliverance. He is the 
second and divine Moses, the legislator who initiates 
a purified Judaism ; but as this second Judaism was 
already contained in principle in the Decalogue, and 
needed only to be freed from the ceremonial additions 
and later institutions, added because of the sins of the 
people, the line of demarcation in the moral point of 
view fluctuates dubiously between the Old and New 
Testament. " The law proclaimed on Horeb," says 
Justin, "has grown old, and is for you alone ; our law 
is for all men everywhere. It is new and eternal, and 
has been given to us by Christ, who is our legislator."* 
The idea of human merit already reasserts itself, 
though with diffidence. The chief end of the sacrifice 
of Christ is to place us in a condition in which we may 
achieve some merit of our own, the power of Satan 
being broken, and death vanquished, and, as it were, 
swallowed up in victory by the resurrection of the 
"Word. Among these possible merits Justin mentions 
repentance, a theoretical knowledge of Jesus Christ 

* UapeaTLV b vojJLoOsTrjg. (" Dial, cum Tryph.," chap. II.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 245 

and of His work, and the practice of that which is 
good. " If you repent of your sins," he says, '' if you 
recognise Jesus as the Christ, and if, in keeping His 
commandments, you own that it was the Father's will 
that He should suffer these things, in order that you 
might be healed by His wounds, you will obtain the 
pardon of sin."* The true and the false are subtly 
blended in this statement, for doing good is made one 
of the conditions of forgiveness. Christians and the 
saints of the Old Covenant have, in fact, one and the 
same path of salvation set before them. The law of 
Moses enjoins on its followers to fulfil that which is 
essentially in harmony with goodness and piety. Thus 
all those who have realised the essential good, general 
and eternal, are agreeable to God, and will be saved 
by Christ in the resurrection day ; alike the Jews who 
lived before the law, Noah, Enoch, and Jacob, and the 
Gentiles, with those Jews who have acknowledged 
Jesus as the Son of God.t This passage is decisive, 
and it strongly limits the significance of the other 
declaration already quoted : " He was to suffer, to 
purify by His blood those who believe in Him."t 
Justin nevertheless holds a position raised above all 
the various schools of Judseo-Christianity, by the ele- 
vation of his doctrine of the Divine Word. The idea of 
the sacrament occupies small place in his writings. He 
attaches great importance to baptism ; he contrasts it 

* El fiev ovv fieravooviJTSQ liri toIq -qfiaprrjukvoiQ kol tTriyiwVTZQ tovtov 
eivai Tov ^Lpinrbv Kal (pvXdacrovTEQ avrov tuq IvroKag ravra (pi](TETe on (o 
irarrip avrbv rjOsXrjas. ravra TraOeip, 'Iva r(p fiioXoJTn avrov 'iaaig ykvqrai 
T(^ ykvH rhjv dvOpiOTTwv), dcpiaiQ vfuv ruJp dfiapriiov tarai. (" Dial. Cum 
Tryph.," chap. 95, p. 323.) f Ibid., chap. 45. 

X TovQ Tnareuom-ag pvaerai tK Oavdrov rb alfia rov ■)(pi<jrov. (Ibid., 
chap. Ill, p. 338.) 



246 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

with natural birth, which has a character of necessity, 
and leaves us in ignorance, while baptism renders us 
the chosen children of God by the forgiveness of our 
sins.* But it only produces its glorious results by 
virtue of a living faith ; it bears no resemblance to 
the Jewish purifications, for all the waters of a flood 
would not wash away our sins ; it purifies us by faith 
in the crucified Christ. Baptism is only beneficial to a 
repenting sinner ;t then it becomes the source of life, 
and may well be called illumination, because of the 
truth which has been taught to the convert, and which 
it symbolises, t Justin does not speak of the baptism 
of children, but only of their instruction. § On the 
Lord's Supper his language is less exact. He seems 
to suppose a union of the Word with the eucharistic 
elements, which are no longer ordinary bread and wine. 
Just as the Word assumed our flesh, so does He 
become incarnate again in these elements, which, by 
a sort of transmutation, form food for the soul.|| Else- 
where, however, Justin insists upon the idea that the 
Lord's Supper is a memorial of redemption. The 
bread is offered in memory of the body of Christ, and 
the wine of His blood. *^ No exact or clear result can 
be drawn from this mystical language. Justin adopts 
the principle of an absolute theopneusty in the inspira- 

* "Owajg fx)) avayKi]Q TtKva firjck dyvoiag fikvuifxev, aXka Trpoaipeaeiog . Kai 
l7rt(TT))fxi]c, dcpecreojg n. dfjiapTiojv tvx'^I'^^v Iv t(^ vdan. (" ApoL," i. p. 94.) 

f TouTO iKcTvo TO aojTTjpiov Xovrpbv rjv, o elTrero rdig fxeTayivoxTKOvcrt. 
(" Dial, cum Tryph.," chap. 13.) | " ApoL," i. p. 94. 

§ Oi lnaQi]rwQi]aav tic Traidwv. (Ibid., ii. p. 62.) 

II Tijv Ci ivxrJQ Xoyov i.v\apiaT7]9i~Kjav rpo^tjv t^ ijg aljia Kai adpKeg Kara. 
IJ.eTa§oXt)v rpkcpovrai ijjjiCjv, eKeivov 'Irjaov Kai cdpKa Kai aiixa l^iodxOijfitv 
tlvai. (Ibid., ii. p. 98.) 

^ Uepi Tov dprov dg dvdfivqcsiv rov crixJuaTOTroLtjcraaOai avrbv, rov Trori]piov 
Eig dvdfivijaLP tov a'ifxaTog avTOv. (" Dial. CUm Tr)^h.," chap, yo.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 24/ 

tion of the Scriptures. The prophets received their 
utterances directly from the Word.* It must not be 
forgotten, however, that he is speaking only of the Old 
Testament, and that he holds that particular prophecy 
closed with Jesus Christ, in whom it found its con- 
summation. Thenceforth it becomes, like the priest- 
hood, a gift common to all Christians. This evidently 
implies a remarkable extension of inspiration under the 
New Covenant. To the objection made by Trypho, 
that if the Christ, according to the prophet Isaiah, vras 
to receive the Holy Spirit, He could not be possessed 
of the Godhead, which has need of no gift — Justin 
thus replies : '^ The gifts of the Spirit are not bestow^ed 
on the Word as if they were necessary to Him, but 
because they were to find their permanent abode in Him, 
so that no prophet was any more to arise from among 
men from that time, which is a fact patent to all." The 
Spirit then rested from H^is work, at the coming of 
Him who was to bring to a close the ancient economy 
for the men of His time. These gifts having thus 
found their culminating point in Him., are diffused 
according to the sacred oracles, by the power of the 
Holy Spirit among all believers, according as they are 
judged worthy of it. This is the miracle foretold by 
the prophets when the}' put into the lips of the glorified 
Christ the words : " Behold, I will pour out my Spirit 
upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall 
prophesy." Justin adds : " Men and women may be 
seen among us possessing these virtues of the Holy 
Spirit. "t Thus Justin recognises no specific difference 

* Tov KLVovvroc avrovg Oeiov \6yov. ("' Apol.,'"' i. p. 76.) 

f 'AveTTavaciTO ovv (to ~vev(^u) iXOovrog itcEivov, kv tovtoj avu~avaiv 



248 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

in the inspiration of Christians. He does not de- 
preciate the authority of the apostles. He frequently 
appeals to their reminiscences or their writings as the 
basis of his teaching, but he does not claim for them 
the monopoly of the prophetic gifts, which belong to the 
whole Church. Nowhere does he refer to any rule of 
faith, any constituted tradition, nor does he enter in 
any degree into questions of internal organisation. His 
conception of the universal priesthood is clearly con- 
trary to the episcopal monarchy, of which he makes 
no mention. He places Peter and the sons of Zebedee 
exactly on the same level, in speaking of the surnames 
given to them by the Master.* The noble confession 
of Cephas wins for him his glorious name. Justin 
proclaims the second coming of Jesus Christ to break 
the power of antichrist, and depicts His reign on 
earth in the glowing colours of the millenarians. He 
believes in an earthly Jerusalem, and does not admit 
the restoration of the Jews.t With the whole ancient 
Church, he holds that there is an intermediate state, in 
which souls are placed under the guardianship of a 
mysterious power ; but as he does not ascribe to their 
sufferings any expiatory virtue, there is a broad gulf 
between his idea and that of purgatory.! The resur- 
rection of the body is presented by him in a purely 
materialistic sense, very unlike the lofty spirituality 
of St. Paul. He seems to admit the eternity of suffer- 

XdQcvra So/JiaTa a roTt," ett' avrbv TTicsTtvovGi dldojmv, ujc, d^iov kKaarov 
kiridTa tm. Kal Trap' rifiiv tarlv iSiHv Kal OrjXeiag, Kal dpasvag x(^pi^<^fi-a.ra airb 
Toi) TTvev/jLarog tov 9eov ixovTag. ("Dial, cum Tryph.," ch. Sy, p. 315.) 

* Ibid., chap. 106, p. 333. 

f Ibid., chaps, 80, 81. He acknowledges, however, that upon this 
point Christians differ. | Ibid., chap. 105. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 249 

ing ; at least, he uses the Greek term, which gives 
occasion to so much ambiguity, without any suggestion 
of a final restoration.* 

Such is this system, abounding in contradictions, 
incomplete, as was to be expected from a first essay at 
theological elaboration. Neither the idea of God, that 
of the Word, or of redemption, is apprehended in its 
true character. Platonist and Jewish elements blend 
with the immortal truth of the Gospel, and obscure it. 
It beams forth nevertheless at frequent intervals, like 
the sun piercing the clouds. The adoration of Christ, 
as the great centre of religion and the Saviour of the 
world, throbs and glows in his fervid words. Recollec- 
tions of the Greek philosophy do not prevent the grand 
idea of the Divine Word and of His moral afiinity with 
humanity, from shining forth in all its splendour. Moral 
freedom, the vivifying breath of the system, excludes 
all pantheistic dualism, and the indefeasible claims of 
the New Covenant, and of those whom Christ has 
made free, are maintained with admirable spirituality, 
notwithstanding the too evident intrusion of a new 
legalism. Through all his verbosity and forced typology, 
we recognise the noble martyr whose dying words 
were : " I am too little to say anything great of Christ !" 
He felt himself overwhelmed by the Divine truth which 
he sought to define, and he was the first to consign 
to the testing fire all the hay and straw that had 
mingled with the marble and gold in the construction 
of his system. Justin deserves to occupy an honour- 
able place in this perilous but necessary work of re- 
ligious science. 

* Alojviov TTvp. ("ApoL," ii. By.) 



250 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

§ III. Athenagoras, Theophihis of Antioch, Tatian. 

The influence of Platonism is more manifest in 
Athenagoras than in Justin. He also starts from the 
idea of the ineffable, impassible God, enveloped in 
light inaccessible.* The Word is the eternal reason of 
God; He is in the Father and the Father in Him. 
The Holy Spirit is the Divine Wisdom, the bond of 
unity between the Father and the Son, who shone in 
the soul of the prophets as a ray proceeding from the 
sun. The Godhead thus conceived forms a perfect 
world. t The Word is inseparable from God, as thought 
is inseparable from mind.l Creation was not, then, 
a necessity ; the world was formed solely by the good 
pleasure of God and of His free love. This is the 
truly Christian feature in the system of Athenagoras. 
The Word was called into distinct existence in order 
to give organisation to chaotic matter, and to impart 
to it form and harmony. The universe finds in Him 
its active principle and idea. Thus he could say : 
" The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, 
before His works of old."^ 

The Word possesses, then, an ideal existence, before 
the creation of the world ; but the idea only enters 
on a complete existence, and becomes an energy, a 
force, a positive power, at creation. He is not, however, 
simply the idea of the world, since the world is not 

* A'Oiov aoparov Koi aTcaOt] Kcd uKaraXrjTrTOV koi dx^prirov, ^(orl Kal 
hciXKh aveKdirjyrjTqj Trepdxofxsvov. (Atlienag., " Leg. pro Christ," p. lo.) 

t Udvra yap 6 Oeog tariv avrbg avT<^ Koafiog HXHog, irvi-Vjia, duva/xiQ, 
\6yog. (Ibid., p. IS.) + Ibid., p. 17. 

§ UpojTOV ykvvrjiia dvai r<fj Trarpl, evx ojg yivopevov {l^ dpxnQ y«P o 
9ebg vovg a'iSiog &)v, tix^v avrog iv tavn^ top \6yov) dXk' ojg tojv iiXt/cwv 
idea Kal hspyeia eivaL 7rpoe\9ujv. (Ibid., p. 10.) 



I 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 251 

necessary to His being ; but when God has once 
determined to create the world, it is He who gives 
shape to formless matter, and makes it express the 
thought of God. Of the origin of this formless matter, 
Athenagoras gives no explanation. He certainly does 
not identify it with evil, since evil has no existence in 
primeval creation ; but it has, at least, a strong native 
propensity to sin, for after the angels have been placed 
in charge of the various spheres of existence, it is 
the angel of matter who is the first to be led astray, and 
who entices the world into evil.* Sin consists entirely 
in sensuality. Thus the doctrine of Athenagoras tends 
to asceticism, though he keeps it within moderately 
reasonable limits. He tolerates marriage only for the 
sake of the multiplication of the race. By a curious 
contradiction, however, he holds the resurrection of 
the body in the most material sense. t His views are 
identical with those of Justin on the subject of idolatry 
and of the inspiration of the prophets. He absolutely 
repudiates sacrifices of blood, even under the Jewish 
covenant, and nowhere gives any theory of redemption. 
Theophilus of Antioch establishes a closer relation 
than Athenagoras between the creation of the world 
and the external or hypostatic production of the 
Word. Like his predecessors, he insists upon the 
incomprehensibility of God, who can never be known 
in Himself, but only by His works. J; The great design 
of the material creation is to reveal God to man, 
and man himself has been called into existence for the 
knowledge of God, who, without him, would have been 

* "Leg. pro Christ.," p., 27. f Ibid, pp. 42, 43. 

X 'Ax^op7]Tog. (Theophilus of Antioch, " Contra Antolyc," p. 71.) 



252 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

as a ray of light without a reflector.* The Word 
was, until the time of creation, in the bosom of God, 
simply in a virtual state. The Father produced Him 
by His wisdom or His spirit, and made Him His organ 
for the creation of the world. He is the principle, 
the beginning of which Moses spoke, when he said : 
^^ In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth." t He is called also the Wisdom, the Spirit, 
and by Him the soul of the prophets was illuminated. 
Such a notion of the Trinity is utterly vague and con- 
fused, though the word itself is employed for the first 
time by Theophilus. All the theophanies since that 
of the Garden of Eden are ascribed to the Word, who 
represents the Father, the absolute God, of whom 
He is ever the eternal reason. Theophilus expressly 
recognises that the world was created out of nothing. 
Man is a being truly divine, as is shown by the solem- 
nity of the act of his creation. Before calling him into 
existence, indeed, God holds converse with the Word, 
and says: ''Let us make man in our likeness."! He, 
like all the world, of which he is the king, came pure 
from the hands of God, but he afterwards involved 
the whole in his fall. The ordeal of Eden was not 
intended to prove his ruin, but, on the contrary, to 
raise him by obedience to the height of God. Had he 
obeyed, he would have been declared God, and raised 
to heaven. § His rebellion is the sole cause of his present 

* ''KQkXriaw dvOpiOTTov Ttoirjaai (p yvoaOy. (" Opera," p. 88.) 
f "E^wv ovv 6 9tdg tov kavTov \Qyov ivhaderov Iv toIq idioig airXayxvoiQ, 
fykwrjaev avrov jx^rd Trjg lavrov (yocpiag fX^ptv^diitvoq 7rp6 tu)v o\u)V tovtov 
TOV \6yov, elx^v vTvovpyov tujv vtt avTOV yeysvrnasvMV • XkyeruL dpxv, <J^v 
TTvevfxa 9eov. (Ibid., p. 88.) | Ibid., p. 96. 

§ "OirMg TsXeiog ysuofisvog, tri koL 9edg dvadeixOdg, ovtiijc /cat elg tuv 
Qvpavbv dva^y. (Ibid., p. lOI.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ASIATIC SCHOOL. 253 

wretchedness. The doctrine of redemption is scarcely 
indicated ; the rejection of idolatry and the practice of 
good works set us in the way of salvation.* Theo- 
philus of Antioch does not fall into the errors of a 
false asceticism ; he holds that marriage is not to be 
despised, for in such a case a man pours contempt on 
his own father and mother.t 

We find the Greco-Asiatic school descending rapidly 
the steep incline which ends in the confusion of the 
"Word with the world. The " Exhortation against the 
Greeks," by Tatian, who was at first a disciple of Justin, 
marks a sensible advance in this direction. According 
to him, God was absolutely alone before the creation 
of the world. Nevertheless everything existed in Him 
potentially, things visible as well as invisible ; they 
were latent, so to speak, in the virtual existence of 
the Word. I We are thus brought very near to the 
Alexandrine idea of emanation. The Word was 
brought into distinct existence by a positive act of 
the Divine will.§ He is the first-born of the Spirit, 
and He becomes the Creator of the world, which He 
educes from nothing. He is born not by division, but 
by communication of the essence of the Father. Thus 
He takes nothing from the Father, as one torch being 
lighted from another does not diminish the parent 
flame. II Does not the word spoken leave intact the 
thought of which it is the expression ? Tatian allows 
that matter was created by God, and that consequently 
it is not identical with evil. He also enunciates, as 

-'' " Opera," p. no. f Ibid., p. 104. 

"^ T>)v apxni' Xoyov dvuafXLV, — avv avrt^ Oeqi rd TravTci. ('^ Contra 
Greec, orat.," p. 145.) § efX/?//ari, p. 145. || ibid. 



254 'THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

plainly as Justin, the doctrine of moral freedom. Never- 
theless, matter is ultimately the source from which 
the evil influence proceeds. This influence fascinates 
the human soul, which is not of divine race, and by 
nature immortal;* hence matter will never be restored. 
From this point to gnostic dualism there was but 
a step. Conversion is represented as simply a return 
to good. The creating hides from view the redeeming 
Word. It is easy to understand that the author of 
such a system should have readily confounded the 
moral drama with cosmology. It would be unjust to 
interpret this as the necessary consequence of Justin's 
teaching. Tatian brings into prominence its dangerous 
aspect, without destroying its germs of fruitfulness 
and beauty. 

^ "Contra Graec, orat.," p. 152. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE THEOLOGY OF THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL, 



Our present task is greatly abridged by the full ex- 
position we have already given of the apologetic portion 
of the theology of Clement and Origen, which is their 
most lasting title to fame.t The school of Alexandria 
was devoted primarily to the defence of Christianity. 
It pleaded this great cause before the tribunal of high 
culture, and it may be said that it pleaded successfully. 
Its method may have been long forgotten ; it has 
not grown obsolete. We could not, even in this 
nineteenth century, find higher or safer ground than 
its broad and beautiful demonstrations of the deep 
harmony existing between the Gospel and the spi- 
ritual needs of the soul, of the legitimacy of religious 
assurance founded upon faith, of the preparation for 
the Gospel carried on amidst all the darkness of 
paganism. We need not go again over this ground, 
previously trodden. We have already brought into clear 

* Beside the works already quoted, I may mention the book 
of the Abbe Cognat, upon Clement of Alexandria : " Clement 
d'Alexandrie, sa doctrine et sa polemique." Paris : Dentu, 1859. 
The writer there treats almost exclusively of the question of tra- 
ditionalism. 

f See " Martyrs and Apologists ;" the second volume of this 
work. 



256 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

light both the great merit and the grave defect of the 
Alexandrine theology. It cannot be too highly extolled 
for the absolute triumph it gains over dualism, by its 
insistance on the essential harmony existing between 
the human and the divine, and in a more general 
manner, between nature and God. But it is never- 
theless open to objection for its exaggeration of the 
intellectual element in the conception of religion, and 
for its too close adherence to the principles of Pla- 
tonism. We shall trace this twofold character through- 
out the whole of the system developed by these illus- 
trious and liberal thinkers. 



§ I. The Theodicy of Clement of Alexandria. 

The idea of God seems at first to be even more 
purely an abstraction in the mind of Clement than 
of Justin. Judging only by certain passages in his 
writings, we should say that he accepts the absolute 
idealism of the neo-Platonists, and rests in a pure 
negation. He desires that the Christian Gnostic, who 
aspires to true knowledge, should not be like ordinary 
men, whom we see circumscribed by the material, as the 
snail in his shell, or moved only by their carnal passions, 
as the hedgehog revolves on his quills.* He wills that 
the Christian gnostic should free himself from all 
lower ideas ; that he should regard as only figurative 
those texts of Scripture which speak of God as though, 
like man, he occupied a particular place, or possessed 
eyes, arms, and a mouth ; as though he had passions 

* Clement of Alexandria, " Opera." Leipzig Edition (Schwikert, 
1832). " Stromates," vol. v. chap. 11, sec. 69. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 257 

like our own, indignation and wrath. Let the Chris- 
tian gnostic rise till he be initiated into the great 
divine mystery, leaving beneath him all inferior degrees, 
and abstracting from being all its material qualities, 
and in the first place that of dimension. Let him 
thus attain to the indivisible point ; then rising one step 
higher he shall reach the true * unity, the great first 
cause, who is above space and time, whom neither 
word can express nor thought conceive. t It is because 
God is the absolute Spirit, that He remains inacces- 
sible to all finite beings, and cannot be apprehended 
in His fulness by those whose intelligence fails to rise 
above the limitations of time and space. But while 
Clement thus borrows from Alexandrine Platonism 
its most emphatic terms, while he calls God the great 
abyss, t the infinite being whom none can attain unto, 
who has neither gender, differentiality, species, indivi- 
duality, number, or accident ; while he declares that 
no attribute, however sublime, can fitly set Him forth ; 
that He is the boundless ocean which lies beyond 
the world ; it is nevertheless impossible to him to be 
satisfied with this pure abstraction, the great unity, 
inert and void, of Philo. In truth, the first principle 
is not absolutely incomprehensible, since He does 
reveal Himself in His fulness to the Word.§ God 
is then incomprehensible only in a relative sense, 
as is conveyed in that grand saying of the old poet, 
quoted by Clement : " I see Him not, for He dwells 

* Noarat juorac. (" Strom.," v. II, 72.) 

f OvKovv kv roTTi^ TO TTpJjTOP aiTiov d/\/V vTTspavij} Kai TOTTOV ical xpovov 
Kal ovofj-arog Kai voijtrewg. (Ibid., V. II, 72.) 
X -BaOvv. (Ibid., v. 12, 82.) 
§ Ovdtv cucardXijTrTov rtf v'k^ tou Oeov. (Ibid., vi. 8, 70.) 

18 



258 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

above the clouds, and the feeble orbs of human vision 
cannot pierce into those depths, for we are but flesh 
and bone." * Nevertheless, we have in our reason 
an intuition of the Divine being, since that reason 
is itself a ray of the Word. When the Word reveals 
Himself fully to us we possess the true knowledge.! 
Nothing is incomprehensible to the Son of God, nor, 
through the Son of God, to the Christian gnostic, 
the man of true knowledge. The Word is not a dimin- 
ished emanation from God. He is His perfect image ; 
He reproduces Him in His fulness from all eternity. 
"God, not being in Himself demonstrable, cannot be 
the object of science. The Son is wisdom, science, 
truth, and everything of the same order. Thus He 
is the demonstration and explanation of truth." All 
the powers of the mind find in Him their centre. 
He includes them all in the circle of His being. 
He is the Alpha and Omega, the eternal and universal 
idea, the One which comprehends the multiples.! 
Evidently the Word is here represented after the 
manner of Philo, as the ideal world, or rather as the 
idea of the world, but with this twofold difference, that 
before He is the idea of the world, He is the idea 
or the perfect expression of God, and that instead of 
being a simple idea, or the uniting bond of ideas, 
as Philo expresses it. He is a personal, living being, 
the express image of the Father. " Our teacher is 
like God the Father, of whom He is the Son most 
holy, free from all stain, free from all passion; the 

- "Strom.," V. 12, 79. f Ibid., v. 11, ys- 

X 'ATToSei^iv £'%£t Kal dd^odov dX<pa kul ojfxkya .,.(!)£ Trdvra ev. (Ibid., 
iv. 25, 158, 159.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 259 

God-Word, who is in the Father, at the right hand of 
God, truly in the form of God." * This resemblance 
of the Son to the Father is complete. ^'Of all natures 
the most perfect, the most holy, the most sovereign, 
mighty, royal, beneficent, the nearest to the Most 
High, is that of the Son."t He has ordered all things 
according to the will of the Father, and He governs 
the universe with excellent wisdom. He does all 
things with untiring and ever effectual power. His 
gaze being fixed on the depths of the divine. The Son 
of God never removes from His absolutely indivisible 
centre ; He does not go from place to place ; He is 
everywhere at once, free from all the limitations of 
space. He is all spirit, all divine light, all eye,| seeing 
all, hearing and knowing all, penetrating all force by 
His higher force. The host of angels and of gods obeys 
this Word of the Father, who has only assumed this 
universal sovereignty in the name of Him who has 
committed it to Him.§ " The Word shares in the 
divine eternity, for the Father is not without the Son."|| 
He it is by whom the world was created. H He was 
the first begotten ; He had no beginning, and He reveals 
the cause anterior to all others, the most beneficent 
of all, whom no lips dare name, but who is worshipped 
in sacred silence, in the holy awe of adoration.** The 
Word of the Creator of all things is not only His 

* "EoiKEV T(^ Trarpl avrov t(^ 9eoJ ovirep iarlv vlbg a.va{xdpTr]TOQ \6yoQ 
Osog, 6 tv T([) Trarpl, o Ik ^t^iwv rov TrarpSg. (" Pgedag.," i, 2, 4.) 

f TeXHujTCLTrj dii] Kal ayuoTarri Kai KvpiUirdrr] 7) v'lov (pvaig ?) r<^ n6v(i> 
"KavTOKparopi TrpoaEX'tOTaTr]. (" Strom.," vii. 2, 5.) 

% "0\og vovg, oXog (pCjg Trarpifov, oXog ofOaXfiog. (Ibid., vii. 2, 5.) 

§ Aid Tov vTrord^avra. (Ibid., vii. 2, 5.) 

II Ovde 6 Trarrip avev viov. (Ibid., V. I, I.) 

^ Arjfiiovpyiag aiTLOg. (Ibid., V. 3, 1 6.) 



26o THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

outward expression ; He is the wisdom and goodness 
of God in their full manifestation, a truly divine power, 
universally intelligible, the supreme will.* To know 
Him is to know the truth by the truth.t 

We see to what a height Clement raises the Word, 
while still maintaining His subordination as having 
been begotten of the Father. Nevertheless, He has 
a distinct personal existence from all eternity. The 
transcendent attributes belong to Him as to the Father. 
We inquire in what then is He distinguished from the 
Father? How is He less ineffable, less incompre- 
hensible ? Clement has some perception of the answer 
when he says that the Father cannot be without the 
Son, and when He regards the Word as the perfect 
expression of the Divine goodness. 

It was needful to go further, and show that the Word 
must be in truth from all eternity the object of the 
love of the Father, if the Father was absolute love. 
Thus the distinction of persons was finally obtained. 
But Clement is satisfied with affirming the perfect 
resemblance of the Word with the Father. He does 
not give us a sufficient reason for His distinct existence, 
for he does not show how He is not to be confounded 
with Him whose exact image He bears. He does not 
raise a rampart against Sabellianism, at least from a 
logical point of view. 

Let us acknowledge, nevertheless, that Clement gave 
life and warmth to the Alexandrine abstractions by his 
broad conception of the love of God. This he makes 

* " Strom.," V. I, 6. 

f Tvuxjig de vlov diaXij^ig iariv d\i]9dag Sid Trjg dXijOHag. (Ibid., 
V. I, I.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 261 

the essential attribute of the Godhead. He does not 
hesitate to identify goodness with God. '' God," he 
says, " is by nature good ;* before the creation He was 
God, that is, He was good."t He is not only good, as 
He is just and wise, or as He possesses other perfec- 
tions. Love is His very being. *' Goodness in Him 
is not a mere virtue ; it is not one of the qualities of 
righteousness ; no, the essence of His righteousness is 
goodness. I God is good in Himself; He is just to- 
wards us because of His goodness. "§ Clement en- 
deavours to establish, in opposition to the gnostics, 
this identity of righteousness with love. " Righteous- 
ness is good," he says, "and goodness is righteous." || 
He traces the love of God even in His sternest dealings. 
If He strikes or threatens the sinner, it is to bring him 
to repentance. He alarms, that He may not be con- 
strained to punish. Chastisement is the sharp touch 
that awakens out of a deathly sleep. Goodness im- 
plies hatred of the vice which is our ruin ; it punishes 
the sinner, but the punishment is always for the good 
of the guilty one, for it tends to his restoration. IT God 
never takes vengeance ; that which we call His ven- 
geance is His chastisement for evil committed, and its 
sole end is the recovery of the sinner on whom it is 

* ^v<TH dyaObg etog. (" Psedag.," i. 9, 82.) 

t Upiv yap kt'kjlv yevhOai 6e6g i]V, dya96g i]v. (Ibid., i. 9, 88.) 

X Ibid., i. 8, 63. 

§ "Qore dyaQog fiev 6 6ebg Si' aavrov SiKULog Tt Tjdr] dt r}}ia.g, kol tovto on 
dyaObg. (Ibid., i. 9, 88.) 

II 'AyaQri yap rj tov 9eov hKaioavvi] Kai diKaia iaTiv rj dyaQoTrjg avTOv. 
("Strom.," vi. 14, 109.) 

*\ Ttfxiopia ds hriv dvTaTroSocrig KaKOV iirl to tov TijuopovvTog avfxcp'spov 
dvaTTEHTrofxsvt]. (" Pasdag.," i. 8, 70.) See the whole of this beautiful 
chapter and the following. 



262 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. / 

inflicted. How could the God who has commanded us 
to pray for our enemies be Himself an avenging God ? 
His wrath and His mercy both tend to the same end — 
the salvation of men.* A warning, moreover, is not a 
message of wrath. t In the eleventh chapter of the first 
book of the ''Pedagogue," Clement shows His merci- 
ful righteousness in operation, seeking the salvation 
of the sinner. Whether it warns or wounds, its remedies 
are proportioned to the gravity of the evil, and He only 
makes them more severe in order that they may be 
more efficacious. Chastening is the fan which separates 
the chaff in us from the pure wheat. It is also the 
hammer and anvil by means of which the heart of man 
is broken under the hand of God. The curse itself 
coming from His lips is changed into a means of help 
and healing. J Thus God always assigns a curative 
virtue to His rebukes. Clement does not fail, however, 
to acknowledge that evil necessarily produces suffer- 
ing, and that the wicked man who hardens his heart 
is lost. All the efforts to deliver us from the power 
of sin which he ascribes to Divine love, imply the 
gravity of the evil. " Every one of us," he says, " in 
choosing evil, chooses his own misery. "§ It would be 
unjust, then, to ascribe to Clement such a low concep- 
tion of the Divine goodness, as would in fact transform 
it into indifference to good or evil. If sorrow follows 
sin, it is because the Most High has so willed it, for 
nothing escapes His power. It is He who has estab- 

* 'EXeovg yap Kai IXeyxov gkottoq rj twv iXfyxo/xti^wi/ aojrrjpia. (" Psedag.," 
i. 8, 72.) t Ibid., 10, 94. 

J ^apfiaKsig, eoiKev 6 ovaiSKJfjiog. (Ibid., i. 8, 65.) 

§ Atp£trai de 'dKaarog r)iJ,a>v rag Tifi(x)piag avrbg eKOJV afJiapTdvcjv. (Ibid., 
i. 8, 69.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 263 

lished the connection between sin and suffering. Hisj 
correction, however, is administered without anget, 
for the Divine Being is a stranger to wrath.* This 
characteristic Clement describes as Plis apatheia, the 
absence, that is, of all passion. t But this Divine 
apathy is compatible with ardent love for the fallen 
creature, and the woe, which was primarily the mere 
result of sin, becomes a merciful means of restoration, 
the goad which pierces the heart to drive it back to 
God. All that Clement says of the Father applies 
equally to the Son, who is in all respects like unto 
Him. We shall see what are the consequences re- 
lating to the doctrine of redemption, which he draws 
from this sublime but incomplete theodicy. Clement 
himself thus epitomises them : '' God is love. While 
He is the ineffable Father, His sympathy with us is 
that of a mother ; so that in loving us, the Father 
assumes something of the feminine nature." | Such a 
presentation of God as this is far enough removed from 
the abstract unity of Gnosticism, which some have 
declared to be the true idea of Clement's theodicy. § 
With reference to the Holy Spirit, Clement speaks 
with the utmost vagueness. *' O glorious mystery !" 
he exclaims : " the Father of all beings is One, the 

* OvK opyiZsrai to Oslov. (" Psedag.," i. 8, 68.) 

t OeoQ yap aTraOfjg. ("Strom.," vi. 1 6, 1 37.) 

J "EoTi Se Kai avTog 6 Oibg dycnri] • rb fiev dpprjrov avrov Trariqp, to de 
rj[xiv GVfiTraOeg yeyove [xrjTtjp. (" De div. serv.," 37.) 

§ See Baur, " Dreieinigkeit," i. 192, 193; "Die Christliche 
Gnosis," 512. Baur is wrong in his assertion that the God of 
Clement can only become a reality by means of a series of neces- 
sary media. The doctrine of the Word in the writings of this 
Father has no analogy with the emanations. When he speaks 
of the Hebdomas and Ogdoas, he is using symbolical language. 
(" Strom.," vi. 16; vii. to.) 



264 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

universal Word is One, and One likewise is the Holy 
Spirit !"* The distinction between the second and 
third persons of the Trinity is, with him, very vague 
and variable, as is shown by the following text : " The 
Word is the Spirit made flesh. "t The doctrine of the 
Trinity is not more fully developed in the writings of 
Clement than of his predecessors. He repeats the 
formula of baptism, but in common with all the theo- 
logians of his age, his doctrine is widely removed from 
that of Nicsea. 

§ II. Creation and Redemption. 

The creation, the work of the Father and the Son, 
is a manifestation of the divine love. Created existence 
has, as its principle, a free act of the eternal goodness. 
It is because God is good that He chose to become 
the Creator, that is, the Father.! The Word is the 
central idea or the idea of the universe, — a living, 
acting idea, which calls forth the universe from 
nothing. § Before the creation of the world time was 
not, for time is the mode of life of created beings. || 
It follows that the world is not eternal, that it has 
not always existed. Clement declares distinctly that 
God was good in Himself before creation. iT Creation 

* " Paedag./' i. 6, 42. 

f 'O \6yog Tov Oeov Trvevfia aapKov/xevov. (Ibid., i. 6, 43.) 

X 'AyaObg ijv Koi did tovto Kal STjfiiovpjoQ dvai Kai Trar'ijp -i^OsKrjaev. 
(Ibid., i. 9, 88.) § " Strom.," iv. 25, 168. 

II TICJs ^' a.v XP^'^V y'iVOiTO ktIolq, avyyevofikvov toIq ovai Kal tov xpovov. 
(Ibid., vi. 16, 142.) 

^ Upiv KTicriv ysv8(T9ai. (" Psedag.," 1. 9, 88.) Moeller ("Gesch. 
der Cosmogon.," p. 511) has passed over this important text in 
his exposition of the doctrine of Clement regarding creation, and 
has thus been led to attribute to him the idea of an eternal creation. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 265 

is a harmonious symphony of which the Word is the 
Choraegus.* One being above all others upon earth 
was the object of this kindness of heaven. That being 
was man, who may be regarded as the end, the goal, 
the idea of creation.t He is filled with the light of the 
Word ; his higher life is, as it were, a breath of the 
divine life ;X and thus the God who has so highly 
endowed him is called, with reason, the Divine Friend 
of man.§ It is upon this spiritual relationship between 
humanity and the Word, that Clement founds his whole 
demonstration of Christianity, of which we have given 
the outline. He is careful to avoid any approach to 
pantheism, declaring that man is not a part of the 
Deity, and is not consubstantial with Him. The only 
affinity between him and God is a purely spiritual 
one, which belongs to him only by the merciful 
kindness of the Creator. No finite being can in truth 
be regarded as a fraction of or emanation from the 
Divinity. II The divine element is imparted to him with 
the moral life, by the Word. Liberty is the natural 
appanage of a being made in the likeness of God. 
The will is the inner spring on which all depends, 
and primarily the intelligence and reasoning facul- 
ties. H The prescience of God is not predestination. 
The Word knew well who would be disobedient ; 
obedience, nevertheless, is within our power. Grace 
and free-will, in fact, coincide. The spiritual exer- 

- "Protrept," i. 5. 

f Man is the lyre of the universal harmony. He is the temple 
of God [icLOdpa, vaSg). (Ibid., i. 8.) 

X 'Ein(pvar][jia Xsyerai Oeoh (" Paedag.," i. 3, 7.) 

^ ^iXdvepMTTov. (" Protrept.," i. 6.) || " Strom.," 16, 74. 

^ At yap XoyiKal cwdfieu ^-ov l3ov\ea6ai SiaKovoi 7re<pvKa<ji. (Ibid., 

ii. 17, 77-) 



266 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

cise which is to produce temperance is enjoined upon 
us, although temperance itself be a divine gift. * 
Clement strongly opposes the fatalistic gnosticism 
which made the salvation of perfect men depend upon 
an arbitrary election of God, as though they had been 
formed of purer clay than the rest of mankind. Faith 
in such a system is no longer the highest fulfilment 
of our destiny; it becomes a privilege conferred by 
nature, and unbelief ceases to be a thing for which 
men can be held accountable. We are then only 
machines moved by our appetites as by a system of 
wheels. " What a mere animal I am then ! " exclaims 
the noble thinker. *' Where is the room for repentance, 
for the goodness of God and His Word, for the whole 
work of salvation ?"t 

Evil is not then a necessary consequence of creation; 
it is not an essential and primordial thing, like matter; 
it is only an accident, the result of the estrangement 
of the will, and cannot be regarded as in any degree 
the work of God. t According to this fundamental 
principle, evil in all the spheres of existence proceeds 
from the rebellion of the creature. The demons were 
not by nature spirits of evil ; they became so ; they 
are angels fallen. Clement shared in the opinions 
of his age as to the extraordinary power of the angels. 
He speaks of them as the rulers of provinces, appointed 
to the administration of the various parts of the uni- 
verse. § Some of them have fallen in love with the 

* ^A9\ov j3apv, Swpov Tov 6eov fikyLOTOv (jojtppoavvr]. (" Strom.," ii. 20, 
126.) f Ibid., ii. 3, II. 

J To aiiapraveiv Ivepyiia Kelrai ovic ovala, dib ovSe epyov Oiov. (Ibid., iv. 

13,95-) 

§ Kara re yap ra tOvr} Kai ttoXuq veveixrjvrai tuiv dyyiXiov ai Trporrraniai. 

(Ibid., vi. 17, 157.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 267 

daughters of men, and have revealed to them the divine 
mysteries.* Others howl in the air, as evil genii, and 
call for bloody sacrifices. Paganism has derived from 
them at once the fragment of truth which it has pre- 
served, and its barbarous sanguinary ritual. Clement 
attributes, however, a simply human origin to many 
of the gods of Olympus. t He does not really give 
to the doctrine of demons the importance which was 
attached to it by Justin before, and by Origen after 
him. He accepts the current idea, but does not dwell 
much upon it ;X and does not, like some other Fathers, 
make it one of the fundamental points of the doctrine 
of the Fall and of redemption. 

The Fall is ascribed by Clement to pride rather than 
to selfishness. He sees in the serpent which crawls 
upon the earth the symbol of the carnal inclination. § 
Sin is in every man,!| and yet our nature cannot be 
said to be absolutely corrupt, because it has the Word 
shining within and giving it light. He denounces 
emphatically the idea that a child just born can be 
liable to the slightest chastisement. '"Wherein," he 
says, "has such a- child sinned? How can it, having 
itself done nothing, be brought under the condemna- 
tion of Adam ?"1T Clement acknowledges, however, that 
man, being once fallen, has no power to raise himself. 
Religious history is not in his view a mere evolu- 
tion — a progressive development, but a restoration. 

* " Strom.," V. I, 10. f " Protrept.," ii. 40. | Ibid., iii. 44, 45. 

§ "Ocpig dWrjyoptTraL rjSovr). (Ibid., xi. III.) 

II To fxiv yap s^afiaprdveiv tcckjiv 'iiKpvTOV Kal koivov. (" Psedag.," iii. 

12, 930 

^ Hov e7r6pvev(T6v to yivvnOtv ttcuSiov ; 1) ttojq vtto t))v tov 'Adcifi 
vTCOTrknTOJKiv dpcLV TO nrjOiv tvepvijaav. (" Strom.," iii. 16, 100.) 



268 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Human nature could never bloom again but for the 
coming of Jesus Christ.* Jesus is indeed the very 
Word incarnate ; His was not a merely partial posses- 
sion of the Word, like that of other men, who have all 
a ray of the uncreated light ; He possessed it in its 
plenitude, in its totality. Truth has been torn to 
pieces by heresies, as the body of Pentheus by the 
worshippers of Bacchus. It finds its unity only in 
Jesus, for He is the perfect Word.f He who took 
upon Him a nature like our own is the very Son 
of God : His Word, His wisdom, the Saviour and 
Lord of all. I He assumed the form of a servant, 
in order to conform to the conditions of our life. 
Doubtless, by the power of the divine virtue which was 
in Him, He could emancipate Himself from the neces- 
sities of ordinary physical life,§ but this was a triumph 
of His liberty, which in no way impaired the reality 
of that life in Him. Clement had too decidedly repu- 
diated Platonistic dualism to fall into docetism, which 
moreover he positively repudiates in the somewhat para- 
doxical passage we have just quoted, which certainly does 
detract something from the perfect humanity of the 
Saviour. When he says that Jesus came under the 
mask of corporeal humanity, to play His part in the 
drama of our redemption, || he only uses these words 
as a vivid figure, not implying in them any of the 
favourite doctrines of gnosticism. The sufferings of 

- "Strom.," V. I, 3. f Ibid., i. 13, 57. 

J Avvafiig tov Oeov 6 vwg apxirdjTaTog Xoyog rov Trarpbg, og ye Kal n^v 
aapKa Trjv tfiiraQrj <pvaH yevofikvijv dpaXatojv eig 'i^iv cnraQeiag eTraidevaev. 
(Ibid., vii. 2, 7.) 

§ "Eipaytv yap oh Sid to aCjjxa dvvdfiei Cfve^Ojuevoi/ ay/^. (Ibid., vi. 9, 
71.) II '^0 dv9pb)Trov TrpoaoJTruov dvaKa£(x)v. (" Protrept.," X. I lO.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 269 

the Redeemer were not apparent only but real, for 
He had assumed a body like our own, and truly shed 
His blood upon the Cross. ''Believe," he says, "in 
the living God, who has suffered ; believe in Him who 
has died."* " The Son of Man," he said elsewhere, 
"came not be ministered unto, but to minister. He 
knew what it was to be weary. He gave His life 
a ransom for many, and called Himself our brother."t 
Clement does not appear to have recognised in Jesus 
a humanity distinct from the Word. Humanity is so 
closely related to the Word, that it needs only to be 
raised to a state of perfection in order to be truly 
divine. 

From Clement's point of view redemption cannot 
be an expiation. He does not admit that God punishes, 
except with a view to heal and save. If suffering 
follows sin, it is by a natural sequence ; but let 
the actual evil cease, and the suffering will at once 
cease with it. There is no debt to pay, no reparation 
to offer to God, who waits only for the repentance 
of the guilty before reinstating him in his original 
condition. Pardon is not even a fresh act, on which 
He decides of His own free will. It is, in a manner, 
a necessary consequence of the love which is the very 
essence of the Godhead, although the right to forgive 
sins belongs to God alone. The necessity or room 
for sacrifice is entirely ignored. Like his predecessors, 
Clement altogether misapprehends the deep meaning 
of the Mosaic institutions. Like Philo, he regards them 

* UiaTrevcTov t<^ TraQovTi 6e(p. (^" Protrept.," x. 1 06.) See, on this 
delicate point, Dorner, work quoted, vol. i. pp. 459-461. 
t " P^dag.," i. 9, 85. 



270 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

only as t3'pes of the cosmogony. The various adorn- 
ments of the flowing robe of the high priest are the 
emblems of the heavenly phenomena. The altar of 
incense, placed between the first and second veil, is 
the symbol of the earth occupying the centre of the 
world. The sanctuary represents the intermediate 
region between heaven and earth. The candlestick 
with the seven branches is the image of the seven 
celestial luminaries. The entering of the high priest 
into the holy of holies, symbolises the initiation of the 
purified soul into the mysteries of the Word. This 
latter figure, although belonging to a higher order than 
those preceding, does not reach the idea of redemption. 
The sacrifices express the consecration of our soul to 
God, and not the deep need of an expiation. " The 
sacrifices, according to the law," he says, " symbolise 
the piety which is incumbent upon us."^ The offering 
of goats and of doves for sin, represents that purifica- 
tion of the irrational part of the soul which renders 
it agreeable to God. 

Everything turns then on moral purification, without 
our having to offer any expiation for the past. If the 
sacrifices under the Mosaic economy express nothing 
more than the return to holiness, then the great sacri- 
fice of Calvary can have no other purpose than to bring 
us back to good. This is, in truth, the essential work 
of Jesus Christ. Clement admits that it became Him 
to achieve the victory over sin and death by His suffer- 
ings, but he offers no sufficient explanation of those 
sufferings. "The Lord," he says, "came to break 

* Ai jxev yap Kara tov vojjlov Ovaiai ti)v Trepi t)fJ.ag ^baktciav aXh]yopovai. 
(" Strom.," vii. 6, 32.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 27I 

the bonds which held man captive. He was the 
incarnation of the divine mystery; He thus bruised 
the serpent's head, and led into captivity the tyrant 
death. Marvel of marvels ! By those hands nailed to 
the accursed tree, He sets free the man who is devoted 
to sinful pleasure, the slave of pollution and sin. O, 
glorious mystery ! The Lord sinks and man rises ; he 
who had been driven from paradise receives the highest 
reward of obedience, even heaven itself." * The suffer- 
ings of Christ had then some positive value ; the 
cross is not the simple declaration of pardon, it is 
a victory. When the texts are pressed, however, while 
they mark the recognition on the part of their author 
of the mystery which is at the basis of the redeeming 
act, they yield nothing at all approaching the idea of 
an expiatory sacrifice. 

The Word incarnate is primarily the perfect legis- 
lator, whose sovereign power is exerted over the soul 
which He has made in His own likeness, and, as it 
were, of His own substance : this He purifies and 
delivers from evil. Justification is entirely confounded 
with purification. Thus, no clear line of demarcation 
can be traced in the writings of Clement, any more 
than in those of Justin, between the two economies. 
The Word was the angel of the Old Covenant, under a 
veil of severity, but of a severity full of mercy. This veil 
is taken away in the Gospel. The work then is one and 
the same, the difference is one of degree merely. Moses, 
under the inspiration of the Word, brought souls back 
to that which is good by instruction and by chastise- 

* "Q Oaufia-og [.iva-LKOu- Kk-Xtrai fxkv Kvpiog, avkari] ck dpOpujTroc. 
(" Protrept.," xi. iii.) 



272 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

ment. He also was thus a good shepherd, leading men 
to virtue, and fanning to a flame the almost extinct 
spark in their souls.* Did Jesus do anything else ? 
If the power He displayed was incomparable, this was 
because He was the Word incarnate, who had perfect 
knowledge of the true good. A divine legislator, He 
promulgated the law which saves. t The law has the 
same end in view as the Gospel ; it corrects us by 
chastisement, and places us under the authority of God. 
The Gospel completes the work commenced, inspiring 
us with the fear of offending the heavenly Father. 
Love is the complement of holiness. At this exalted 
degree of virtue we are the sons of God ; love covers 
our sins, and we are judged worthy to be admitted into 
the heavenly kingdom.]: God's will is that man should 
become God.§ 

Thus salvation still appears as the reward of re- 
acquired holiness. The part of Jesus in this work 
of purification is very clearly defined in the following 
passage: "In the present life we are the unhealthy 
victims of depraved desires and infamous lusts : inflamed 
with a thousand passions, we have need of a Saviour. 
The Saviour sent to us is the bearer, not only of 
pleasant but of painful remedies. Fear is a salutary 
influence, bitter as it is. As diseased creatures, we 
need a physician; as wanderers, we need a leader; 
as blind, we want one to give us light ; as perishing of 
thirst, we need the living spring of which, if a man 

- "Strom.," i. 26, 168. 

f To awTijpioi' TrpoaTayna. (Ibid., i. 26, 1 69.) 
+ Ibid., i. 27, 173. 

§ Qegq di. IkeIvoq dvOpujTTOQ y'lvirai on (SouXerai 6 Seof. (" P^dag,," 
iii. I, I.) 



I 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 273 

drink, he thirsts no more ; as dead, we require hfe. 
The sheep look for the shepherd, the children for one 
who shall teach them aright. Yes, all mankind cries 
aloud for Jesus,* that its sins and wanderings may not 
issue in final condemnation ; but that, delivered by 
Him from the pollution of sin, men may be gathered 
into the heavenly garner." *' Every man will be judged 
by his works." t Salvation thus understood is simply 
conversion wrought in us by the Word. 

When Clement uses the term ransom, or when he 
says that the Word by His crown of thorns bare upon 
His head all our crimes, and delivered us from them, 
these are only figures which he borrows from Bible 
language.! The general principles of his system forbid 
us to attach the sense of a more modern orthodoxy to 
the following passage : *' Jesus died as the victim of 
the most fearful of human crimes. He bore it upon 
Him, and by His very agony overcame death and the 
devil." § 

There is, however, one text of Clement which goes 
beyond his general point of view. He puts into the 
mouth of Jesus these touching words as addressed to 
the sinner: " I am the master of heavenly wisdom ; I 
have wrestled with death for thee. I have abolished that 
death which was thy due, on account of thy sins and 
unbelief." II We have seen that Clement always re- 

* Uacra -q avQpioiroTriQ deofisQa 'l7](Tov, 'iva n?] dvayojyoL Kai a/napTuAol eig 
r'eXog Ty KaraSiicy kinrscyojfiev, haKpiOCjixBV de roJv axvpfiiujv koL eig ttjv 
Tcarpi^av CLTroOrjKJjv (JojpevOojfiev. (" Psedag.," i. 9, 83.) 

t Ibid, i. 8, 71. I Ibid., ii. 8, 74. 

§ lIov7]pd does not here signify the punishment of sin, but sin 
itself. 

II Tbv GOV l^sTKra Qdvarov ov uxptLXeg. (" De div. serv.," 23.) 

19 



274 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

gards suffering as the offspring of sin. Jesus, in dying, 
has overcome sin, and hence also death, which is the 
consequence of sin. But between this general idea 
and the payment of a debt to God, involving the endur- 
ance of His direct curse, there is a wide interval ; that 
gulf is not and could not be bridged over by the system 
we have set forth. 

This theory of redemption does not give an adequate 
account either of the texts of Scripture or of the deep 
needs of the human soul. The revelation of Scripture, 
like that of conscience, demands a reparation which 
should be made by the representative of man. This di- 
vine reparation brings pardon, and is the basis of holi- 
ness, the latter being realised by the progressive appro- 
priation of an already finished salvation. The sinner, 
who casts himself at the foot of the cross, is raised again 
justified by the work of Christ, which he has accepted 
and ratified. Grasped by faith, that work becomes 
to him a treasury of grace, from which he can draw 
fresh supplies day by day. Clement is satisfied with 
making salvation contingent on amelioration, on the 
fulfilment of the divine law, as that was revealed by 
Jesus Christ, while attaching great importance to His 
victory over death and to the aid given us by Him. 
He does not succeed, however, in placing in this way 
the restoration of man on an immovable basis. He 
carefully distinguishes between sins committed before 
and after repentance. The first repentance obtains the 
forgiveness of sins, because it is a purifying principle.* 
The second repentance, which is caused by the falls of 

* Merdvoia t) KaQaipovaa tov totvov T))g ipvxrjg. (" Stromata," ii. 
13, 56.) 



\ 

BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 275 

the believer, cannot claim directly a part in the remis- 
sion of sins proclaimed by baptism.* Clement does 
not explain himself very clearly as to this difference, 
but it is plain that he regards the work of Christ as not 
sufficient of itself in all cases, and that he deems 
something more to be necessary than the remission of 
sins. Repentance thus defined approaches very nearly 
to penitence possessing more or less of expiatory virtue. 
The faults committed after baptism are excluded from 
the scope of the forgiveness granted in the name of 
Christ at the time of first repentance ; they must be 
atoned for by the endurance of chastisement. t From 
this there results logically the necessity of a painful 
and gradual purification, which may be prolonged even 
beyond the present life, in order to raise us by slow 
degrees to that perfect holiness which is confounded 
with salvation. " When we read in the Scripture," 
says Clement, '' ' Thy faith hath saved thee;' we do not 
understand these words to mean that we are saved by 
any faith whatsoever that is not followed by works." 
These words, moreover, were addressed only to Jews, 
who were living irreproachably according to the law, 
and to whom faith in the Saviour was the one thing 
lacking. *' When thou shalt have quitted this body 
thou must needs put away all the passions which 
animated it, before thou canst enter the abode prepared 
for thee ; for to know is more than to believe, and to 
be judged worthy of the highest honours of heaven is 
more than simply to be saved. The faithful Christian 
who, by means of severe discipline, has subdued his 
passions, undergoes in a higher stage of being heavier 
* " Strom.," ii. 13, 58. f " De div. serv.," 39. 

19 * 



276 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

chastisement.* He experiences the special repentance 
which follows on sins committed after baptism. He 
grieves not to have yet attained, or to be incapable of 
ever attaining, the high degree of perfection in which 
he sees his brethren." Heaven is a spiritual hierarchy, 
in which every man takes his place according to his 
deserts.t 

§ HI. Christian Morals. Atithority. The Doctrine of 
the Chtirch ajtd of the Sacraments, The closing 
Dispensation, 

Errors in the conception of redemption generally 
find their counterpart in other spheres of theology. 
It is not possible to revert to Jewish legalism, with 
regard to the relation of man to God, without return- 
ing more or less to sacerdotal principles, and sacri- 
ficing Christian liberty ; for the characteristic insti- 
tutions of the Old Covenant are :ill based on the 
peculiar condition of man prior to redemption, when 
the way of free access to the Father was not yet 
opened to him. In precisely the same measure in 
which the old barrier is raised again between man 
and God, and salvation is shorn of its freeness, is 
man brought again into bondage, or rather placed 
afresh under the yoke of those religious forms, the 
design of which was to impress upon his mind the 
distance which divided him from heaven. Thus it is 
we find the distinction of men and of days reintro- 
duced into the very midst of the Christianity of our own 
days. The sanctuary is rebuilt ; the spiritual life is 

* 'O TTicTTog fikTiKTiv litl Ti]v (SeXriova rrjg irporepag ixovrjg fxeyioTyv 
KoXamv. (" Strom.." vi. 14, 109.) f Ibid., vi. 13, 106. 



1 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 277 

placed under the yoke of a minute ritualism; and an at- 
tempt is made to renew the expiatory sacrifice in the cele- 
bration of the Lord's Supper itself. How is it, then, 
that we see Clement of Alexandria standing steadfast 
upon the heights of Christian spirituality, without taking 
one backward step, though he had thus enfeebled the 
conception of redemption ? We account for it on this 
ground ; that he made the love of God the very heart 
and centre of his doctrine, in such a way as few theo- 
logians have done since. Doubtless he failed to show 
the harmony between this infinite love and absolute 
holiness. This is the failure in his system, and we 
do not attempt to disguise its importance ; nay, we 
hold that his errors on this essential point, neutralised 
as they were in his own teaching by the pure and 
generous current of his leading thought, have never- 
theless had a melancholy effect upon the Church, 
and have done much to bring it back into the bondage 
of Jewish institutions. Clement himself, however, as 
the illustrious head of the Alexandrian school, was 
exempt from any such tendency. The idea of God 
entertained by him is indeed widely different from 
that of Mosaism ; it must even be acknowledged that 
he failed to perceive the true intention of that dis- 
pensation. He idealised and transformed Judaism, 
instead of recognising that which was its true basis — 
I mean that conception of justice so deeply graven 
on the conscience ; for he makes justice vanish into 
love. By a path, however, which is not the true one, 
because it is not sprinkled with the blood of a truly 
atoning sacrifice, he arrives at the same result as the 
Gospel, the full reconciliation of man with God by 



278 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the incarnate Word ; and he derives from it all the 
consequences which Paul had deduced, with a logic 
never since surpassed. 

There is no trace in the teaching of Clement of that 
dualism or of that opposition between the human and 
divine element, which is the parent in morals of asceti- 
cism and casuistry, and which gives the predominance 
to ritualism in the religious life ; neither does his 
doctrine tend to sacramental materialism, nor give any 
impulse to a purely external authority. We have seen 
him, in his apology for Christianity, denying the 
existence of any opposition between faith and reason, 
and showing how they meet and harmonise in the 
Word. Nature and grace are never exhibited in his 
system as radically opposed, for man is made for God ; 
he is divine in the essence of his being. Perfection 
is not beyond or above humanity : it is the complete 
realisation of man's destiny. It follows that Christian 
morality must be profoundly human ; that it cannot 
require the sacrifice of any element of our true nature ; 
and that it will issue in the union of our soul with 
God and with His Word. The great moral principle 
of Clement, that which includes all precepts, is this : 
'' Be ye imitators of God."* Now, God is to Clement 
supreme love, free from all passion. This, then, is 
the ideal proposed to the Christian. The true Christian 
whom Clement calls the gnostic — that is to say, one 
who is raised to that perfect knowledge which cannot 
be distinguished from love — reflects this sublime apatheia. 
He desires no reward, not even heaven. t By this 

* Qiov xpv fJ-iii€iadai. (" Strom.," iv. 26, 173.) 
f Ibid., iv. 22, 139, 140. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 279 

perfection to which he is gradually elevated, he is 
transformed into the likeness of the Word, who is 
Himself the glorious image of the Father. " The 
only Son, the type of the Father's glory, of the 
supreme, most high God, impressed His image on 
the soul of the gnostic by pure contemplation. Thus 
his soul becomes, as it were, the third reflex of the 
divine life."* 

All Christian morality consists in the imitation of 
God, which is rendered possible to us by the help 
of the Word. Its first duty is piety, properly so called; 
that is, mystic union with God — contemplation. It 
then teaches us to glorify Him by a well-regulated 
activity in the various spheres of life. The perfect 
Christian, or the gnostic, has intercourse with God by 
the Great High Priest, and he cultivates as far as pos- 
sible likeness to the Lord, by his piety, which impels 
him to labour for the salvation of men.t 

The numerous details into which Clement enters, 
upon the Christian's manner of life, have no analogy 
with a rigid ritualism. They are the manifold applica- 
tions of one principle, ever maintaining its inflexible 
unity. He does not recognise two codes of morality, 
the one for ordinary life, the other for a life of per- 
fection. *'The morality of Christ," he says, with 
a wealth of wit, "does not sing above the key."| 
It requires only that which may be demanded strictly 
of all those who consent to bear Christ's yoke. The 
" counsels of perfection " are thus expressly excluded. 

* 'Qg ilvai TpLT7]v ijciq t))v Qeiav eltcSva. (" Strom.," vii. 3, 16.) 

■f- Ibid., vii. 3, 13. 

X Oi'X <JJQ vrrkprovov. (Ibid., ii. 20, 1 23.) 



280 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Nor does Clement sanction one moral code for the 
Church and another for the world; neither evil nor 
good changes its character by changing surroundings. 
The soul is not to resemble a polypus, which takes 
the colour of the stones on to which it fixes itself.* 
The simple and ignorant in the Church are not bound 
to a less rigorous holiness than those who are versed 
in religious knowledge. Love is not a thing acquired 
by science ; it is a divine seal, which may be set upon 
all hearts.! The entire life of each Christian ought 
to bear its impress.! 

Clement does not place a bar upon any calling 
or condition in life. He declares plainly that diligent 
attention to public affairs is compatible with devotion 
to divine wisdom. § The gnostic, if he attains to a 
position of eminence in the state, will devote himself 
unreservedly to the general good. He is another 
Moses, marching at the head of the people for their 
common salvation. || The affairs of the world or of 
ordinary life can be conducted honourably, and in the 
spirit of God. IT From this point of view, marriage 
is not a state of inferiority. Clement vindicates its 
dignity with equal poetry and purity, when he applies 
to father, mother, and child, the promise of Jesus : 
"Where two or three are gathered together in my 
name, there am I in the midst of them."** Children 
are compared to flowers, which the Divine Gardener 

^ "Paedag.," iii. ii, 80. f Ibid., iii. 11, 78. 

I Ibid., iii. 11, 80. 

§ 'AXkct icai TToXireixTaaOaL t^ov. (Ibid., iii. Ii, 78.) 

II " Strom./' vii. 3, 16. 

•[[ Td kv K6(Tfx(fj Koafxiu)g Kara 6ebv aTrdyeiv ov KeKOjXvrai. (" P^dag.," 

iii. II, 78.) ^-'^ "Strom.," iii. 10, 68. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 281 

gathers in living fields.* Much moderation is no doubt 
necessary in all that relates to the life of the senses, 
but the sanctity of the family is openly avowed, and 
even extolled. Incontinence is a sin, not marriage. t 
Let us not be more modest than the Creator, who 
has appointed the preservation of the human species 
by this means. Clement makes no exception in the 
case of bishops. He appeals to the apostolic precept, 
according to which the bishop, before being promoted 
to his office, should be prepared for the government 
of the Church by the charge of the family.! Mar- 
riage, no less than virginity, has its ministry and its 
work appointed by the Lord, namely, the care of the 
woman and children. § The father is the providence 
of the house. Second marriages are allowed in the 
spirit of St. Paul. II Clement is naturally led to reject 
extreme asceticism by his doctrine of the creation. 
The corporeal element comes from God ; it is not then 
evil in itself. The flesh which must be mortified is not 
simply the physical part of our nature ; it is all that 
is evil and defiled by sin. In his paraphrase of 
Romans vii., Clement shows that if our body is too 
often the tomb of the soul, it is none the less designed 
to be the temple of the Spirit, 51 and he urges the 
gnostic to make it a sanctuary by temperance and 
consecration to God. The Christian has a right to 
admire the beauty of the outer world, provided he 

* "AvOt] dk Tov ydfxov rd rsKva. (" Paedag.," ii. 8, 7 1.) 

t "Strom.," iii. 12, 86. | Ibid., iii. 12, 79. 

§ "Ex^i yap axTTTEp r) evviwxict ovt(o Kal 6 ydfxoQ idiag Xeirovpyeiag koI 
diaKoviag. ("Strom.," iii. 12, 79.) See also on this same subject, 
"Paedag.," ii. 10, 11. || "Strom.," iii. i, 4. 

IT Ibid., iii. 11, yy. 



ZSZ THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

does not become absorbed in it, and fall into an 
idolatrous worship of the beautiful, like the Grecians, 
but seeks in it the glory of the Creator.* Poverty 
has no more merit in itself than celibacy. Sin does 
not consist in possessing but in abusing.t The treatise 
entitled, " How the rich man can be saved," gives 
expansion to this thought. That which God requires 
is not poverty of outward condition but poverty of spirit. 
The despoiling of the outward life is of no virtue : it 
is the proud spirit, covetousness, over-carefulness, 
ambition, the lusts which choke the good seed, which 
must be eradicated from the heart; it is the soul that 
needs to realise its poverty.! How, if it is heavily 
weighted with gold, with the anxious care of property, 
can it spread its wings and fly heavenwards ?§ Does 
not St. Paul say that men can use the world as not 
abusing it ? and possess riches, yet be as though they 
possessed them not ? The treasury of Christianity 
will richly supply all wants, and the best defence 
with which we can be surrounded will be the love of 
the poor comforted by us. Yes ; widows, orphans, the 
indigent, — these are the glorious, unarmed bodyguard 
of love. II 

Clement takes a no less elevated point of view in 
his estimate of martyrdom. He does not exalt it 
beyond measure, nor pay to it an idolatrous and peri- 
lous homage. He condemns it whenever it is a kind 
of suicide, and is sought for its own sake, when it 

- "Strom.," iv. i8, ii8. 

f KaXCJg ovv ifKovTEiV oh KeiccJXvKev, dWd yap to dSiicwg Kal dTrXfjoriog 
ttXovthv. (Ibid., iii. 6, 56.) 

;j; Trjv \pvxw ctvTijv jvuvMcai roJv waQCJv. (" De div. serv.," 12.) 
§ Ibid., 17. II ^Tparov doTrXov. (" Strom.," 34.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 283 

might have been avoided by the exercise of rational 
prudence.* The cowardice which flinches from the 
duty of confession is indeed inexcusable, t and nothing 
is more beautiful than suffering bravely borne for Jesus 
Christ at the call of duty. The true Christian, as he 
dies a death of ignominy, is assured of the royal friend- 
ship of God. No man can rob him of his liberty, or of 
the love that fills his heart. I Yet he is not placed on 
a higher platform than his brethren, for all suffering 
endured in the name of Christ is martyrdom and 
confession. § Thus is maintained the unity of that 
great morality of love which is independent of circum- 
stances and outward differences, and which is never 
more truly realised than in the wide propagation of the 
truth and of the divine life, for he who becomes the 
generous dispenser of these so far resembles God. He 
reproduces the charity of which he himself has been 
the subject. II 

The high spirituality of Clement manifests itself in 
his conception of the religious life, properly so called. 
He does not admit any of those distinctions which 
were the special peculiarities of Judaism. He does 
not recognise the wide separation between the sacred 
and the profane, between the human and the divine 
element, which characterised the period of the law. 
Neither does he acknowledge any special priesthood, 
or any essential difference among Christians. Ecclesi- 
astical offices are maintained ; the bishop is not so 
completely identified with the elder as in the previous 

- "Strom.," iv. 4, 17. f Ibid., iv. 4, 16. | Ibid., iv. 7, 53. 

§ El TOivvv ij irpoQ 9iov bjxoKoyia jxapTvpia iarl, Tvaaa rj KaOapojg ttoKitev- 
(TafxsvTj \pvxi) fJ-ST l7nyva)(TE(i)Q tov Oeov 77 ralg evroXalg BTraiajKOvTa fidprvg 
l<jTi Kai /3tV Kal Xoytfi. (Ibid., iv. 4, 15.) || Ibid., vii. 9, 42. 



284 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

epoch,* but Clement's views are nevertheless as far 
as possible from favouring the idea of a hierarchy. t 
*' There is but one Master, and He is in heaven ; hence 
all Christians are alike disciples."! ''The true rela- 
tion between Him and us consists in this, that perfect 
truth belongs only to the Lord our Master, and that 
our feebleness and ignorance constrain us to come to 
Him for all wisdom." All Christians are children placed 
under the teaching of the Divine Schoolmaster. They 
form the flock which, like a shepherd, He guides by His 
crook. § " He who teaches, and he who is taught, have 
both but one Master, from whom proceed both the 
word and the understanding." || There is no other 
apostolic succession than that of faith and piety. "The 
true gnostic, in other words, the complete Christian, 
supplies the absence of the apostles by the purity of 
his life and knowledge. "II After all, the great apostle, 
the great witness of Christ, who instructs us and leads 
us to Him, is the Church,** and the Church is composed 
of those " new creatures " in whose heart the new 
law has been engraven as on a living tablet. ft 

In opposition to this broad conception of the uni- 
versal priesthood, we may perhaps be reminded of 

* "Pasdag.," iii. 12, 97. 

f " Strom.," vii. 3, i. In this passage the elders are contrasted 
with the deacons, as invested with the higher office : they are there- 
fore really likened to the bishops. 

J Elt; diddoKaXog kv ovpavolg' oi sttl yrjg eUoTiog av TravreQ KeicXriaovTai 
fxa9r]raL (" Pgedag./' i. 5, 17.) § Ibid., i. 5, 17. 

II Elf yap 6 SiddfjKoXog Kai tov Xkyovrog kol tov uKpoMfisvov. (" Strom.," 
i. I, 12.) 

^ 'O yvojariKog ovtoq rfjv diroaTokiKriv aTrovcr'iav avravaTtXripoi (3iovg 
opOwg, yiyvMaK(j)v a.Kpitu>g. (Ibid., vii. 12, yy.) 

** 'H iKKkqaia ijde Kai 6 vvixfibg 6 jxovog dtdaaKoXog. (" Psedag.," iii. 
12,98.) ft Ibid., iii. 12,94. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 285 

Clement's singular theories as to the mysteries of 
religious knowledge which are to be revealed only to 
the elect — the true gnostics. But the modifications 
with which he qualifies this esoteric theory, so opposed 
to the true spirit of the gospel, take away from it all 
analogy with a priestly caste. In substance all that 
he maintains is this, that scientific theology, the 
heights and depths of religious knowledge, are not 
directly accessible to all.* He commends the presen- 
tation of the higher truths in symbolic language, on 
the ground that it stimulates indolent thought, and 
tends to incite and arouse it by the very charm of mys- 
tery.! On the other hand, it hides sacred things from 
souls profane, so that pearls are not cast before swine, 
to the greater condemnation of the impious, j Clement 
lays stress on the typical and parabolic character of 
Scripture, § and he is certainly not wholly wrong. 
There was danger, however, in marking out such a 
track at a time when all the traditions of ancient 
philosophy tended to foster the proud aristocracy of 
intellect. It was easy to arrive by such a path at 
a sort of doctrinal priesthood, which should attach to 
religious science an overwhelming privilege. Clement 
desires a guide, a well-known catechist, who should 
be the teacher of truth in the Church. || He does not 
make it sufficiently clear that the human master ought 
himself to be amenable to those whom he instructs, 
and to that universal faith of the Church which the 
Divine Teacher imparts to every one of His members. 

- " Strom.," i. i, 13. 

f "Iva Z,r]T7]riKoi v7rdpx(OfiEV. (Ibid., vi. 15, 1 26.) 

I Ibid., V. 9, 58. § Ibid., vi. 15, 126. 

II 'E^rjyrjTOV tlvoq kuI KaOrjyriTOV XP^'-^^ ^X^i-V. (Ibid., V. 9, 57') 



286 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Science can never interpose as a necessary medium 
between the soul and the Word, in matters relating to 
the divine life, that is to say, in truths which are 
essential. In his excessive desire to represent truth 
as accessible by successive steps, Clement goes so far 
as to confound allegory with a sort of dissimulation. 
He consents to the partial veiling, in teaching, of even 
the highest truths.* We must bear in mind, however, 
that initiation into the deepest mysteries of knowledge 
is not made the peculiar privilege of any one caste, 
but belongs to all who are willing to ascend, step by 
step, the ladder of light. While, therefore, we reject 
esoterism even in this form, we are bound to admit that 
in Clement's system it has no analogy with priestcraft. 
That which is clearly conclusive on this point is 
the repudiation of all outward sacrifice, for there can 
be no true priesthood where there is no sacrifice. We 
have seen how far Clement's views led him in an 
opposite direction. He was not prepared to admit the 
necessity of sacrifice even in the Old Covenant, or its 
full significance in the cross of Christ. How then 
could he desire its perpetuity ? The daily sacrifices 
of the Christian are prayer, the reading of Holy Scrip- 
ture, praise, and the generous charity which is exercised 
both in the communication of the knowledge of God 
to the ignorant, and in the breaking of bread to the 
hungry.! This is the sacrifice most excellent and 
acceptable to God.t The true Christian who reahses 
this ideal of piety is the truly royal man, the sacred 

* " Strom.," vii. 9, 53. 

f Avt'iku Ovffiai jxev avT(p svxai, sv-evS,ag rwv ypatpoJv, xpaXfioi. ov koi tvv 
aXKj]v Ovaiav rrjv Kara rovg deofxsvovg kmCOGLV Kal coyiidrojv kul ■)(^pr]jxaTu)ri 
yiyvojaKSL. (Ibid, vii. 7, 49.) | Ibid., vii. 6, 31. 



BOOK 11. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 287 

priest of the Godhead."^ Such a conception of Christi- 
anity is altogether aUen from the idea of a hierarchy. 
The Church is the temple of God; the earthly altar, 
into which enter as living stones all those who are 
of one heart and of one soul in prayer.t This true 
Church is no outward institution, a petrified catholicity ; 
it is distinct from all its partial realisations. Those 
alone who have fulfilled the divine commands deserve 
to be admitted among the apostolic elect. The true 
deacon, the true elder, is not the man who has received 
the imposition of hands, but he who has fulfilled the 
conditions of his office. J It is plain that the same 
principles apply to private Christians, and we have 
thus, in an implicit form, the distinction between the 
visible and invisible Church. 

The distinction of days Clement repudiates in prin- 
ciple not less strongly than the distinctions of religious 
caste, although he allows the observance of the Lord's 
day and of the Christian festivals, as he allows the 
existence of various offices in the Church. *' We must 
needs," he says, " honour and worship Him whom 
we believe to be the Word, the Saviour, the Master; 
and by Him we must worship the Father, not on 
certain chosen days, as some imagine, but in every 
possible manner, and through the whole course of 
our life. The gnostic, or the true Christian, does not 
worship God in a consecrated place, in a sanctuary 
set apart, nor on certain festival and appointed days, 
but always, and in every place. He believes that God 

* 'lepEvg ocriog rov Oeov, /SatrtXiKoc avOpojirog. (" Strom.," vii. 7 36.) 
f *Ecrri yovv to Trap' r)iuv 6v(naaTy]pL0V rb s-myeiov to aQpoiapLa rwv tolq 

evxcLiQ dvaKeLi.iEvojv [liav wcTTrep t'xov (piovrjv ti)v koiv))v kuI fiiav yvi^urjv. 

(Ibid., vii. 6, 31.) + Ibid., vi. 13, 105. 



288 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

is everywhere, that He is not confined within sacred 
enclosures. We who believe in His universal presence 
make our entire life a festival ; we sing His praises as 
we work, as we sail on the sea, or go about any of our 
various occupations.* All places, all times in which 
the thought of God occupies our minds, are alike 
sacred." Prayer is not merely the utterance of articu- 
late words, it is the close converse of our soul with 
God. Our secret thoughts are the prayer which He 
hears.t 

Such a system as that we have set forth, which 
had its basis in the original harmony between the 
human soul and the Word, could not recognise any 
purely external authority in the realm of religious 
thought. It is doubtless very necessary that the Word 
should be known by us, and exhibited in His true 
character. Hence the importance of revelation, which 
finds its most perfect expression in the Incarnation. 
We must needs know where w^e can find the true 
Christ. The Holy Scriptures are invested in this 
respect with the highest authority. They are the 
standard of truth, J for they echo in our ears the very 
voice of the Word, which our heart acknowledges, 
and to which it must respond. § They are truly in- 
spired of God, II and we should be very guilty were 
we to mutilate them after the manner of the heretics. 
Clement's ideas with regard to the canon of Scripture 
are not, however, very exact ; for he frequently quotes 
the apocryphal writings of both the Old and New 

* Uavra toiwv tov ^iov loprrjV dyovreg. (" Strom.," vii. 7, 35, 36.) 
f Ibid., vii. 7, 40-43. I Ibid., vii. 16, 94. § Ibid., vii. 16, 95. 
11 Tag OeoTTvevarovg ypacpdg. (Ibid., vii. 16, lOI.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 289 

Testaments.''' He affirms the inspiration of the former, 
but without defining with any precision his view of 
that inspiration. He does not hold that the super- 
natural gifts of prophecy ceased with the sacred 
writers, since he asserts for himself a sort of inspi- 
ration of God, declaring that he will be guided 
in all his statements of doctrine by the Spirit of God.t 
He does not, then, recognise any essential difference 
between the inspiration of the apostles and that of 
Christians of all ages. Scripture, nevertheless, main- 
tains the supreme authority, for it alone leads us direct 
to the fountain of wisdom ; but for its due under- 
standing we need to make use of our own rational 
and reflective powers. Clement objects to the purely 
literal interpretations, which were often given by rab- 
binical Gnosticism.! He himself falls into the opposite 
extreme, and advocates the theory of the threefold 
meaning. He discovers in each sacred text at once 
a sign of the truth, a commandment, and a prophecy.§ 
He dwells constant^ upon the mysterious and alle- 
gorical character of revelation, which makes it a duty 
for us to lift the veil of the primary meaning. The 
Book of God is not a cold, inert monument of the 
past ; it is not even like a stream, which flows, as it 

'•' Clement quotes, as Holy Scripture, the " Pastor Hennas " 
(" Strom.," i. 17, 8^ ; Ibid., ii. 9, 43) ; the " Gospel of the Eg}-ptians" 
(Ibid., iii. 9, 63); the "Epistle of Clement of Rome" (Ibid., iv. 17, 
107) ; the works of Maccabeus and Tobias (" Strom.," i. 21, 123). 

f Te\£i(o9ei(Tr}g roivvv riig TcpoOkaeioq yfiTv a7idar]Q sv oTg sdv 6e\{]Gy to 
irvsvua v-oiivYj^iaGL. (Ibid., iv. I, 31.) We shall complete our task 
(of unfolding the subject of the book) by the help of the explana- 
tion which the Holy Spirit shall be pleased to suggest to us. 

t Ibid., vii. 16, 99. 

§ 'Qf ariixCiov, ioc, kvToXrjV, loq TTpofp^rdav. (Ibid., i. 28, 179.) 

20 



290 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

were, spontaneously from its source. No; the heavenly 
virtue is constantly infused afresh into it, as the milk 
fills the breasts of the mother.* Revelation is ever 
living. Is not holiness also a divine inscription, graven 
by the hand of the Lord, not upon tables of stone, but 
upon the heart ?t 

Clement recognises oral tradition, but only as a source 
of history, never pretending that it is an infallible 
authority. Scripture does not contain the whole of 
revelation, either under the Old Covenant or the New. I 
The higher knowledge, the true wisdom (gnosis), was 
transmitted orally by the apostles, § for there is an 
essential part of revelation which cannot be written. 
These passages, isolated as they are, contain the 
principle of a grave error, by placing an anonymous 
and irresponsible authority on a par with that of the 
written revelation. Clement is led into this doctrine, 
so full of danger, by the aristocratic pride of intel- 
lect, which was not wholly subdued in him. Happily, 
he formed no organisation for the perpetuation of oral 
tradition ; he acknowledges no authority as decisive 
but that of Scripture ; he does not entrust the care 
of this to a hierarchy, but to the Christian conscience, 
which has an aptitude for discerning the fundamental 
articles of doctrine, the immovable foundations upon 
which every one should build. 

Chapters fourteen and fifteen of the seventh book 
of the '^ Stromata," contain the development of these 
grand ideas. Timid minds, which need the help of 

* " PiEdag.," i. 6, 41. f Ibid., iii. 12, 94. | " Strom.," v. 10, 63. 
§ 'H yvuxTiQ de avrr) 1) Kara diadoxag t'lQ oXiyovg Ik tujv airoaTokiov 
aypa(pb)Q TtapaooQsiaa KareXvXiiOtv. (Ibid., vi. 7? 61.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 29I 

an external authority to give fixity to their fluctuating 
views, urge, in objection to Clement, the divisions 
which have arisen in the heart of Christendom. How 
is truth to be known in the midst of so much diversity ? 
Do not the variations of doctrinal teaching prevent 
its recognition, and submerge it beneath their opposing 
currents ? * This is the very thesis maintained by 
Bossuet against the Reformation. Clearly, if the 
Church had at this early time possessed a recognised 
authority in matters of doctrine, to which final appeal 
should be made in questions of the faith, Clement 
would have invoked it, as did the great French apo- 
logist ; and all these objectors would have been at once 
silenced. He does nothing of the kind. He replies, 
first, that it is the glory as well as the peril of all 
great principles that they stir up warm controversy : 
opposition is sure to attend all that is grand and good.t 
None will say that because there are many physicians 
belonging to various schools of medicine, therefore the 
path of wisdom is to consult none : on the contrary, men 
will carefully inquire which is the best. The traveller 
who finds himself at the junction of several cross roads — 
some leading to a precipice, others to a rushing river 
— will not on that account stand still where he is, but 
will set himself to seek out the path which will bring 
him in safety to his destination. | If two fruits be 
offered to us — the one fresh and sweet, and the other 
a mere imitation in wax — we shall be at no loss to 
make our choice. But this choice must be made in 
all seriousness and good faith, and we must not shrink 

- "Strom.," vii. 15, 89. 

t UavTi Tip KaX(P fxwfiOQ e-KiTai. (Ibid., vii. 15, 89.) \ Ibid., vii. 15, 91. 



20 



# 



292 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

from the toil of a manly investigation. Truth is worth 
all it costs. It is a laborious and difficult acquisition, 
and in order to find it we must use all the powers of 
our mind. It cannot be either discovered or retained 
without determined effort.* Heresy increases the 
arduousness of the task. We are called, then, to 
distinguish between the true and the false. We have 
an inward criterion, which discovers that which is 
opposed to our true nature. t 

But the great criterion is Holy Scripture, which 
shows us whence heresies arise, and enables us to 
recognise the pure doctrine in the true Church. I 
Thus, the supreme tribunal is Scripture, and not the 
Church, with this proviso — that Scripture be not con- 
sulted in isolated passages, but in its perfection as a 
whole. § We have seen, in the Apology of Clement, 
that in his view faith in the Divine Book is based 
upon faith in the person of Jesus : we believe in the 
Holy Scriptures because our hearts have heard the 
voice of the living Christ. We must not ask of them 
more than they are able to give, seeking in them a 
fully developed theology, for this would be to confound 
faith with science. No ; there is no other basis for 
a true catholicity than the unanimity of believers upon 

* Aia TrXeiovog to'lvvv ^povriSog epevvrjreov r^v n^ ovri dXrjQeiav. 
("Strom.," vii. 15, 91.) 

t To cLTrpeTreQ Kai Trap a (pvaiv. (Ibid., vii. 15,91.) 
J At' avToJv TbJv ypacjywv SK[iav9dveiv dTroStiKTiKWQfOTTiijg fjiev aTrea^aXrjcrav 
al aips(TSig, 07ro)g de kv fiovy ry d\r]9eia iKKkqaiq. r) rt dKpi^iardrr] yvCJaig. 
(Ibid., vii. 15, 92.) "The Scriptures teach us demonstratively 
how heresies have deviated from the truth, and how exact know- 
ledge is found only in the true Church." Thus the Holy Scriptures 
are placed exphcitly above the Church, since they alone are the 
warrant for its doctrine. The importance of this plain passage 
cannot be overstated. (Ibid., vii. 15. 92.) § Ibid., vii. 16, 96. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 293 

the essential articles of belief. This is the true canon 
of the Church.* By virtue of this distinction between 
faith and theology, Clement maintains the universal 
Credo, while he yet leaves the necessary latitude to the 
spirit of investigation and scientific progress. He in- 
sists, as he always does, upon the moral aspect of 
knowledge. ' Heresy, which leads us back into the 
speculations of the world, is like Lot's wife looking 
back upon Sodom. Let us look upward and onward, t 
Clearly, these exhortations refer only to the appro- 
priation of truth in its moral and living character, 
and do not apply to its scientific element. It is by the 
light of these principles we must interpret the seven- 
teenth chapter, in which he appeals to the antiquity 
and unity of the Church in support of his views. " The 
true Church," he says, "is one of great antiquity; 
God is here, the Lord is here. It is one in its essence, 
in its thought, in its principle, in its excellence ; it is 
both ancient and universal. All its members tend to this 
unity of the faith founded on the two particular Testa- 
ments — or let us rather say on the Testament — which 
remains one and the same through all the diversity 
of times, by the will of the one God and Saviour."]; 
Thus the foundation of this unity and of this antiquity of 
the Church is ever the Book of God. To appeal to anti- 
quity, as Clement does, is simply to appeal to the primi- 
tive type of the faith. The unity which he vindicates 
holds good, as he has himself said, only of funda- 
mentals. It is, moreover, progressive, a height towards 

* OvTit)Q KOI i)ixaQ Kara [i7]csva rpoTrov tov aKKXtjcnaaTiKOV irapataiveiv 
TrpoaijKei Kavova, ku'i {.LoKiara ti)v irepi tuv fxsyiarujv ojxoXoyiav ijfiHQ 
(pvXdTTOfxiv. ("Strom.," vii. 15, 90.) 

f Ibid., vii. 16, 93. I Ibid., vii. 17, 107. 



294 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

which the members of the Church are bound to be ever 
pressing onward. From all these statements it follows 
that Clement was one of the most faithful representa- 
tives of liberalism in the Church, at a time when the 
hierarchical system was seeking to consolidate itself. 

His idea of the sacrament bears the same character- 
istic impress. If he regards baptism as the illumination 
of the Christian, he nevertheless sets aside any idea 
of magical virtue in the ordinance, when he declares 
that Jesus Christ, the type of the Christian, became 
perfect in baptism because then the Holy Spirit de- 
scended upon Him.* Again, we must ever bear in 
mind Clement's beautiful exposition of the manner in 
which salvation is appropriated by the Christian by the 
act of faith, which he conceives to be the freest and 
most personal act that can be performed. The impar- 
tation of the Holy Spirit then is that which attaches 
value to the sacrament. The baptism which brings 
illumination is a rational or spiritual act.t The Lord's 
Supper cannot be regarded as a sacrifice in a system 
which recognises only the offering of the heart and 
lips. The material element has noplace in it. "Often," 
says Clement, " the Lord uses allegorically the terms 
food, flesh, bread, blood, milk." | The mixing of wine 
and water in the communion, is supposed sometimes to 
set forth the union in man of the earthly and the 

* TeXeiovTai Sa rqi XovTfji^ }x6v(i) Kai tov TrvevfiaTog rrj Ka66S(p ayid^erai. 
(" Paedag.," i. 6, 25.) The Holy Spirit is not in the water ; He 
comes down from heaven. The spiritual act alone gives value to 
the material act. 

f AoyiKtp ^aTCTiaixari. (Ibid., i. 6, 29.) 

X HoWaxoJQ dWrjyoptirai 6 XoyoQ Kai ^pi^fia Koi. aap^ Kai Tpo(l>i) Kai 
dprog Kai alf^a Kai yaXa, diravTa 6 Kupcog dg ctTroXavaiv r)aCJv. (Ibid., i. 

6, 47.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 295 

Spiritual element,* sometimes the union of the law and 
the Gospel. t A symbol of which the significations are 
so various, cannot be regarded in any aspect as con- 
taining the body of Christ. Clement says distinctly, 
that when Jesus pronounced the words, " This is my 
blood, drink ye all of it," this blood of the vine was the 
Word Himself, whose blood was shed for many for the 
remission of sins. It allegorically represented the sacred 
draught of salvation. + In other words, the eucharistic 
cup is the symbol of salvation. Elsewhere he declares 
that it is by knowledge that men eat and drink the 
divine Word. § 

The doctrine of the consummation of all things is 
not exhibited at all in this system ; we find no trace 
of millenarianism. Clement .admits a continuation of 
progress in faith and love beyond the grave, since 
the work of purification is to be carried on after the 
present life. |i 

The ultimate salvation of all, though not formally 
stated, is the logical conclusion of a doctrine which 
recognises in punishment no other design than the 
merciful one of healing and restoration. 

* 'AvaX6yo)Q Kipvarai 6 [xkv olvog, t<^ v^ari, t<^ de avOpcoTTc^ to Trvi.vjxa. 
(" Paedag.," ii. 2, 20.) f Ibid, ii. 2, 29. 

X Kat svXoyijaev ys t6v olvov, eiirojv ' Xa^iri, ttuts " tovto fiov idTiv to 
alfxaj alixa Trjg cifXTrtKov, tov \6yov top Trept ttoWuiv eKxeo/xevov dg a(p€aiv 
ctfxapTiOJv ev^poavvrjg uyLov aWrjy p el vajxa. (Ibid., ii. 2, 32.) 

§ Bpwo-tf yap kuI iroaig tov Qhov \6yov 1) yvutaig icTi Trjg Oeiag oixjiag. 
(" Strom.," V. 10, 67.) II Ibid., vi. 14, 109, 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONTINUATION OF THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 
THE SYSTEM OF ORIGEN.* 

Hitherto we have met with only fragmentary expo- 
sitions of Christian doctrine. Origen is the first the- 
ologian who elaborates a complete system. This was 
at once his glory and his peril — a peril worthily and 
nobly braved by the Christian thinker, who, rising 
above mere isolated ideas, seeks to grasp the ruling 
principle of revelation. All science worthy of the name 
must aim at unity. If this were not a lawful object of 
aspiration in the domain of religion, why should the 
human mind so intuitively aspire to it ? Doubtless, 
it is not lawful to purchase it at the price of an arbitrary 
treatment of the problem, and to imagine that unity is 
attained when those refractory ideas, which will not 
lend themselves to an incomplete or premature syn- 
thesis, have been brought into subjection or set aside 
altogether. But theology and philosophy only enter 
truly into the scientific movement when they rise from 
the fragmentary to an organic condition, when they not 
only gather together the materials for the building, but 
embrace the plan which gives unity to the structure. 

* Beside the books already quoted, we mayrefer to Redepenning's 
beautiful monograph on Origen ("Origenes. Eine Darstellung seines 
Lebens und seiner Lehre.," vol. ii., Bonn, 1843). 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 297 

Then only does science progress. The explanations 
given, as they one after another betray their inadequacy, 
stimulate the spirit of research, while the simple state- 
ment of particular truths leaves the mind stationary 
and inert. The attempt made by Origen to systematise 
religious truth, marks therefore an important era in 
the history of Christian thought. He claimed to find 
in the Gospel the key to all mysteries, that is, the 
highest philosophy, without impairing in any way its 
true evangelical character. In fact, he openly declares 
himself a believer. He acknowledges at the very 
outset the authority of Scripture, and explicitly accepts 
the universal faith of the Church of his time. But this 
faith has not been received by him passively as a dead 
tradition; it is with him the experience of the heart 
and the logical conviction of the mind. Hence, when he 
expounds it to his contemporaries, the proportions he 
gives to it of a system so comprehensive and scientific, 
that the loftiest genius may delight to contemplate it. 
And yet the inspiration of this grand philosophy, which 
is inferior to none in boldness, is always humble and 
fervent love to Jesus. Christian science is in Origen's 
view the full faith or knowledge, which rises to the 
direct contemplation of its object, and ascends from the 
visible Christ, "known after the flesh," to the Eternal 
Word. He falls into the same error as Clement, 
in thinking too lightly of the foundation of this trans- 
cendent knowledge — that historical Gospel which is 
the very substance of the truth — and in treating the 
letter of the Scriptures as a seal that needs to be 
broken. It remains none the less true that speculation 
is never with him a mere mental feat ; that it is rather 



298 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the aspiration of the entire being after the living and 
complete possession of the truth. 

Origen spoke the philosophical language of his time. 
He resolutely dealt with the problems which occupied 
the minds of his contemporaries. In order rightly to 
estimate and understand him, we must bear constantly 
in mind that sublime and subtle pantheism which 
was the primary inspiration both of Valentinian 
Gnosticism and of Platonism. If his mind frequently 
forsakes the solid ground of psychological observation 
and exact history, to soar into vague regions which 
are neither heaven nor earth, it is because he is de- 
sirous to occupy a sphere as wide as that of his adver- 
saries. Anxious to excel them in science, no less than 
in faith, he will not abandon to them any vantage 
ground. Like them, he peoples the infinite void with 
the creations of his imagination. To the ^ons he 
opposes good and bad angels ; he does not hesitate to 
invent a sort of mythology, of which the inspiration is 
Christian, but which in its bold additions to the posi- 
tive statements of revelation, necessarily becomes vision- 
ary. Herein is not the strength and beauty of his sys- 
tem. These are found in that bold vindication of liberty, 
which is its central and vital principle. It may be said 
that the vast theological edifice reared by him is, as it 
were, the temple of liberty. Liberty is its foundation and 
its topstone ; nay, it is more, it is the animating soul 
of the whole doctrine taught therein. Pantheistic 
naturalism had struck the whole world with a death- 
chill. Origen reawakens it with the breath of liberty, 
restores it to life, and snatches it from the petrifying 
grasp of fatalism. In the boldness of his thought he 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 299 

denies the existence of necessity altogether. All the 
phenomena of the material world are free acts. Bodies 
owe their existence to the motions of the will. If 
matter gravitates or ascends, it is not by a simple 
physical law, but is connected with moral action. 
Liberty is the explanation of all things. 

The great merit of Origen is his endeavour to trace 
back all the diversity of things to one and the same idea. 
Unhappily his conception of liberty was incomplete, as 
we shall see, and his error on this fundamental point 
produced results all the more serious, because of the 
close logical coherence of his system. 

§ I. The Theodicy of Origen. 

Origen, like his master Clement, does not escape the 
influence of Platonist abstraction, in his conception of 
the first principle. God dwells in light inaccessible, 
glorious ; He cannot be known by His works, which 
are but feeble radiations of His majesty.* He is the 
essential Being, the sole possessor of life absolute and 
immutable, and therefore free from every material 
element, for matter is the subject of perpetual change. t 
He is Spirit, uncomposed, simple, the Supreme One, 
the Monas.t He cannot be designated by any attribute, 
nor by any name.§ He is known perfectly only to 
Himself. Even the Word does not know Him as He 

'!" "De Principiis," book i., chaps, i, 6, vol. i. Delarue's edition, 

P- 5i-_^ 

t Hav aujjxa vXlkov 'ixu (pvaiv dXX.oi(OTt)v Kai Si oXojv fi£Ta€kr]Ti]V. (" In 

Joann.," book xiii. 21, vol. iv. 231.) 

I " Intellectualis natura, simplex, sed ut sit ex omni parte /.lovag, 
et ut ita dicam, evdg." (" De Princip.," i. i, 6.) 

§ " Contra Cels.," book vii. 38. 



300 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

knows Himself. " His own contemplation of Himself 
is higher than that of the Son.* Thus the Absolute 
has no true existence except in the first person of the 
Trinity. Even in the matter of self-knowledge He is under 
no necessity to seek His manifestation in a second person 
like unto Himself; indeed, no manifestation of Him 
can be adequate. He remains the One who can neither 
be named nor defined, and who alone is cognisant of the 
entire mystery of His own being. The Godhead is 
complete in the Father. The Word and the Holy 
Spirit are necessary only for the purposes of creation, 
though they are themselves infinitely above all created 
life. Without the creation, the Monas would be self- 
sufficing in the unfathomable depth of His essence. 
This is again the old leaven of Platonism, from which 
the Christian theology of that age could not free itself, 
when it entered on the formation of its theodicy. 

Origen dwells by preference on the immutability of 
God. Nothing can make Him change. Hence it is 
wrong to speak of His anger or his indignation. t 
Justice and love are indissolubly united in Him. He 
is not taking vengeance when He condemns, and mercy 
blends with all His severity. All the expressions of 
Scripture which do not harmonise with this immuta- 
bility of His essence are pure anthropomorphisms.]: 
Let us observe that love is here presented rather as the 
guarantee of the immutability of God, than as the 
essence of His being ; it is the attribute rather than the 
substance. 

* T^ eavTOv Oeojpig, ovay fxei^ovi rrig sv fi^ Qiiopiag. (" In Joann.," 
book xxxii. i8, vol. iv. 449.) 
t 'k\r]Qc;)Q ovK opyiZerai. (" In Jerem. Homil.," 18, 6, vol. iii. 249.) 
I " In Genes. Homil," iii. 2, vol. ii. 67. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 301 

It is in virtue also of this immutability that Origen 
declares the creation to have neither beginning nor end. 
It cannot be conceived that the goodness of God should 
ever be inactive, for this would suppose a change at 
some period in the Divine life. It must then have ever 
had an object on which to expend itself, and this object 
has always been produced for its own good. Creation 
is an eternal act of the Divine love. We arrive at this 
result, because as the will and power of God are eternal, 
so we cannot suppose the existence of any cause at any 
time preventing Him from producing the good He 
desired. Just as He could not be a Father if there 
were no Son, nor a ruler if there were nothing to govern, 
so He could not be called Almighty if there were no 
scope for the exercise of His almightiness. '' Since God 
shows Himself truly to us as the All-Powerful, it is 
necessary that the universe should exist."* If we can 
suppose a time when the universe was not, it is obvious 
that God must have undergone a change, passing from 
a state of inaction to the creative act. It follows that 
it is not possible to say that the world is not, like God, 
without beginning or end.t 

Origen does not intend to say that the world shares 
absolutely in the eternity of God ; for the peculiar 
characteristic of the eternal is not endless duration, but 
immutable existence. God is beyond all space and all 
time ;X herein consists His omnipresence and omnis- 

* " Ideo ut omnipotens ostendatur Deus, omnia subsistere ne- 
cesse est." (" De Princip.,^' i. 2, 10, vol. i. 57.) 

f OvK dpa dwarov XsyeiP firj elvai avapxov tcai avvatdLOv T(/i 9s(f to rrav. 
(Photius, " Codex," 235. Huet, vol. i. p. 57, note /. Comp. " De 
Princip.," iii. 5 3.) " Nullam habuit aliam creandi causam nisi 
propter se ipsum, id est bonitatem suam." (Ibid., ii. 9, 6.) 

I " Homil. in Exod.," vi. 14, vol. ii. 151. 



302 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

cience. This omniscience, however, is not absolutely un- 
limited, for God cannot foresee evil, which is a nonen- 
tity.* Though the world is under the dominion of pro- 
gression and change, it has no more a beginning than 
the creative act from which it emanates. In fact, Origen 
contradicts himself on this important point. If creation 
is indeed necessary to the immutability of the Divine 
Being, it was not called into existence solely for its own 
good. God had a motive to creation in Himself and for 
Himself; the world is in a manner the complement of 
Himself. This is the fatal consequence of every doctrine 
which does not find in the very sphere of the Divine, 
the supreme realisation of love. There is no other 
means of preserving unimpaired the full freedom of the 
creative act. 

We have spoken hitherto of the act of creation 
only in its relation to the Divine immutability ; 
in so far, that is, as it belongs to theodicy. We 
shall consider presently creation itself in its various 
phases. The doctrine of the Trinity, as taught by 
Origen, receives its true character from this conception 
of the origin of the world. Without doubt the Word 
is the gl'ory of the uncreated light. His eternal radi- 
ation, inseparable from its source ; and in this sense 
the Father cannot be conceived of apart from the Son. 
" We acknowledge that God has always been the 
Father of His only Son, begotten of Him, deriving 
from Him all that He is, having no beginning." t 
Let us bear in mind, however, that God knows 

* " Omne quod malum est, scientia ejus vel prasscientia habetur 
indignum." (" Comm. in Epist. ad Rom.," vii. vol. iv. 603.) 
-j- " Sine initio." (" De Princip.," i. 2, 2, vol. i. 54.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 303 

Himself better than He is known by the Son, and 
that consequently the Absolute is in an emphatic 
manner unique. God has in Himself greater glory 
than in the Son. In the contemplation of Himself 
He arrives at a truer knowledge of His own being 
than is possessed by the Son.* If the Father cannot 
be separated from the Son, it is because the perpetuity 
of the creative act is essential to the conception of 
His immutability. This is the great contradiction 
of the system. Creation is on the one hand the 
guarantee of the Divine immutability ; and on the 
other hand its necessity impinges on the perfection 
of the Absolute, which cannot be linked to a con- 
tingent existence. What, in truth, is the Word if it 
be not the eternal idea of multiple being ? God is the 
Monas in its absolute simplicity ; the Word is the 
personification, the hypostasis of the Divine reason, 
in so far as it is applied to the multiple, the prin- 
ciple of all development, the bond uniting the various 
component parts of the universe, the unity of all ideas. t 
Language which is composed of various connected 
propositions, represents perfectly the nature of the 
Word.t He is the archetype of the manifold images, 
the prototype of the truth diffused in reasonable souls, 
which carry His impress stamped upon their thoughts ; 
the central, primordial idea, containing in itself all 
subordinate and particular ideas. § 

''' " In Joann.," xxxii. 18. 

t 'SvcTTaaig t))q Trepi rwv dX(x)v 6e(i)piag Kai vorjixdriDV. (Ibid., tome. i. 
vol. iv. 20.) 'O OeoQ jxkv ovv 'iv Ian Kai arrXovv, b (ra»r?)jO rjfiuiv did to. 
TToXKd. (Ibid., 21.) 

I Ibid., tome v. fragm., vol. iv. 96. 

§ 'Apx^TvwoQ eiKtl)v TrXeLovdJv eiicovojv. (Ibid., tome ii. 2 ; vol. iv. 51.) 



304 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The relation between the Son and creation is brought 
out very clearly in these expressions : it is as patent 
in the system of Origen as in the writings of Justin, 
Athenagoras, and Tertullian. It is true that Origen 
further holds the pre-existence of the Word ; but as 
creation itself has no beginning, this in no way destroys 
the essential correlation between the Son of God and 
the world. We might be tempted on this ground to 
identify the doctrine of Origen with that of Philo or of 
Neoplatonism, and to see in the Word only an imper- 
sonal idea — the symbol of the eternal creation — and 
thus to destroy all true distinction between Him and 
the world. This would be an error. If it cannot be 
denied that in Origen's system the Word has a distinct 
existence only in view of creation, it must nevertheless 
be acknowledged that the Word is not confounded with 
the creation. He alone is the complete and adequate 
image of the Father. No creature, not even that 
which occupies the highest place in the hierarchy of 
being, can claim the same filial relation as the Son 
to the Deity. The Word is not external to God, but is 
God Himself.* He has received the full communi- 
cation of the glory, the power, the knowledge of the 
first principle. He does not only share in wisdom, 
reason, truth ; He is wisdom itself, truth itself, reason 
itself, t The only difference between Him and the 
Father is that the knowledge of God is original, that 
of the Son is derived. God produces that which He 
knows ; His omniscience is only another term for His 
omnipotence. With Him, to foresee or to predetermine 

- " Contra Cels.," i. 57 ; viii. 12. 

f AvToaotpia, avToaKrjQaa, avroXoyog, (Ibid., iii. 41O 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 305 

is to lay down the principle of the future event, which 
beyond this depends on the free choice of His creatures.* 
He does not merely know all things by virtue of His 
wisdom and prescience, but He keeps all in His own 
power.f 

God alone knows all things, and has a perfect know- 
ledge of Himself, in which not even the Son shares 
to the same degree ; for the Word has only a derived 
and passive knowledge of the Father. He is not the 
Absolute God, but simply God ; He has not the im- 
mutable existence which belongs only to the supreme 
Monas. "God only is God by His own nature. "| Thus 
the Saviour says in His prayer, " That they may know 
Thee, the only true God." The Being, then, who is 
not by His own nature God, becomes a sharer in the 
Deity. He is made God; He is not the Go^ with the 
article, but simply God without the article, § the first- 
born of every creature, who is above all gods. He 
only preserves His divinity by abiding in the con- 
templation of the Father. It follows that He is not 
the simple, essential, unchangeable good ; He does not 
possess immutability. The Father is above Him, as 
the Son is above all other beings. This inferiority 
made it possible that He should humble Himself for 

the salvation of the world. Since He was not the im- 

* " Quod autem pr^finit, praefinit principium prsefiniendi faciens." 
(" Comment. Series in Matth.," 55, vol. iii. 874.) 

f " Sin autem comprehensionem earn dicimus, ut non solum 
sensu quis et sapientia comprehendat, sed et virtute et potentia 
cuncta teneat quse cognovit, non possumus dicere, quod compre- 
hendat Filius Patrem, Pater vero omnia comprehendit." (" De 
Princip.," iv. 35.) 

I 'AvToOeog 6 Osoq sdTi. (" In Joann.," ii. 2. Comp. " De Princip.," 
i. 2, 13.) 

§ QioiTOiovp.ivov, ovx 6e()c, aWa Otog. (Ibid.) 

21 



306 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

mutable One, He could come down into the region 
of death and of change.* But this very clear subordi- 
nation detracts nothing from His divine nature. He 
is distinguished from all created beings, first, because 
PJe was not created but eternally begotten by the 
Father; He is born of the will of God. That will 
is the eternal germ of the Word.f He is not then 
the product of an emanation, but of a moral act, in 
which all the divine energy is concentrated, and which 
is its plenary manifestation ; for the will is the very 
essence of the free Deity. Thus the Son is of the same 
essence as the Father.^ He remains closely united 
to Him in love; the two wills form but one.§ In the 
second place. He is not only above creation — He is its 
first cause. He it is who has called all beings into 
existence, imparting the higher life to all who are 
endowed with reason and liberty, and establishing 
the order and harmony of the universe. || Lastly, 
goodness is His as a part of His very essence, and 
He cannot lose it, while the creature possesses it not 
as an element of his very being, but as the result 
of a moral determination. It is therefore possible 
for him to lose it. IT The Word thus defined is widely 
different from the mere abstraction of Platonism, 

* " In Joann.," ii. 21. 

f " Velut quaedam voluntas ejus ex mente procedens." (" De 
Princip.," i. 2, 6.) 

I " Communionem substantia, ofxoovmog videtur." (" Fragm. in 
Hebrasos," vol. iv. 699.) 

§ "Ovra dvo rfj viroaraau Trpajiiara, ev ry TaVTorrjri rov (^ovXrj/jLardg. 
(" Contra Cels.," viii. 12. Comp. " In Joann.," xiii. 36.) 

II 'AvTovpybv Tov kocjxov. (" Contra Cels.," vi. 60.) 

IT " Immaculatum autem esse prater Patrem et Filium et Spiritum 
Sanctum, nulli substantialiter inest, sed sanctitas in omni creatura 
accidens res est." (" De Princip.," i. 5, 5.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 307 

in which the Word is nothing more than the virtual 
idea of the world. We have here presented to us a 
living hypostasis,* an active and creative cause, which, 
while it occupies a subordinate place in reference to 
the absolute, is nevertheless at an infinite distance 
from mere created beings. The strength of the Christian 
sentiment in Origen overpowered his logic, which would 
else certainly have led him to break down the barrier 
between the Word and creation ; for strictly speaking, 
and from a metaphysical point of view, His Word 
is rather the idea of creation than the revelation 
of the Father. But there are elements in every argu- 
ment higher than mere logic, and no one has a right 
to press a doctrine beyond the point marked by such 
limitations. Origen is a Christian philosopher, and he 
does not move simply in the region of abstractions. He 
must needs include in his synthesis the great religious 
facts which have been apprehended by his heart and 
conscience, and hence he is obliged to give it notable 
extension. 

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is but slightly 
touched upon by Origen. He very distinctly recognises 
the third person in the Trinity, but he regards His 
existence as derived from the Son, and therefore as 
subordinate in a still more marked degree.! The Holy 
Spirit is called the first-fruits of the creation, since He 
is produced by the Word, who is in a manner the 
medium of creative action. J He is distinguished from 

* 'YTroaraaiv i^wTav. (" In Joann.," i. 39.) 

f 'FXaTTOJV irpog rov Tcarkpa 6 v'lbc, tn ^k ?'jttov to TrvfVjUa. (** De 
Princip.," i. 3, 5.) 

;|; Td^ei TiiJ.iu)Tepov TcavTuiv tCjv vrrb rov Trdrpog did Xpiarov yi.vo}xkvi»)v. 
(" In Joann.," ii. 6, iv. 6j.) 

21 * 



308 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the world, however, inasmuch as He shares also in the 
Divine life. He is the personification and the hypos- 
tasis of holiness, as the \yord is of the reason. While 
the Son reigns over all reasonable beings, the Holy 
Spirit reigns over the saints. He is the centre and 
source of spiritual gifts, the moral focus of religion.* 
We have thus three realms of the Divine. The uni- 
verse, which belongs to the Father ; reasonable beings, 
which are dependent on the Son ; and holy souls, which 
are in communication with the Spirit. The two king- 
doms of the Son and of the Spirit are evidently com- 
prehended in that of the Father, who alone has the 
eternal dominion, for as all proceeds from Him, so all 
returns to Him. Thus we find that while Origen dis- 
tinctly speaks of the Trinity, his doctrine is yet widely 
removed from that of Athanasius, and he bears clearly 
the impress of his age.f Origen's teaching, neverthe- 
less, is true to the incomparable grandeur of his theme. 
^* The Trinity passes every intelligence, temporal or 
eternal, for all that is not the Trinity must be measured 
by the limitations of time."l 

§ II. The Creation and the Fall. 

The Word being Himself eternally engendered, pro- 
duces unceasingly the multiform life which exists 
ideally in Him before He evolves it from nothing. 
This divine idea comprehends the good alone, for evil 
is an accident and a nonentity which can neither be 

* " De princip.," i. 3, 5. 

f " Ilia vero substantia Trinitatis quae principium est et causa 
omnium, ex qua omnia et per quam omnia." (Ibid., iv. 26.) 

X " Csetera quae sunt extra Trinitatem in sasculis et temporibus 
metienda sunt." (Ibid., iv. 28.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 309 

conceived nor originated by God. The Word creates 
pure spirits, which are destined to be made participants 
by Him in the eternal reason, and to be united to Him 
as He is united to the Father. They are all of the 
same divine substance. ^' Every spirit which shares in 
the spiritual light is evidently of the same nature as 
every other spirit which has part in the same light. 
God and all spirits are therefore of the same sub- 
stance."* The difference is that none of them possess 
good as an essential part of their being ; they are to 
secure it by their own moral determination, and as 
a necessary consequence they may lose it. The funda- 
mental axiom of this doctrine is: "Every rational 
creature is capable of good and evil. His destiny de- 
pends not on his original condition, but on his own 
desert."! Ever3^thing hinges on free will. Let us 
pause to consider this main point of Origen's system ; 
it is the true pivot around which the whole revolves. 

Origen has devoted a large part of the third book of 
his " Treatise on Principles" to this question, refuting 
with extreme care all objections, especially those taken 
from Scripture. This demonstration was very neces- 
sary at a time when opposition to Christianity was 
taking the form of pantheistic fatalism. Absolute pre- 
destination was the fundamental article of the gnostics, 
and the aliment of that unreasonable pride by which 
they exalted themselves above all other beings, deeming 
these to be by nature fitted only for a lower life. 

"^ " Ex quo concluditur Deum et hsec quodammodo unius esse 
substantise." (" De Princip.," iv. 36.) 

f " Omnis creatura rationabilis laudis et culps capax." (" De 
Princip.," i. 5, 2.) " Ex merito non per conditionis prcerogativam." 
(Ibid., i. 5, 2.) 



310 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Among beings capable of action, some have the 
motive power without, some within themselves. Stone 
and wood belong to the first category. The animal 
has in himself the spring of movement, a spring which 
is not merely mechanical, since it is accompanied by 
instinct. The reasonable being adds to these natural 
motive powers the force of reason, by which he can 
distinguish between motives, reject some and accept 
others.* He has, moreover, the faculty of choosing 
the good ; thus he is responsible for the evil which he 
commits. It is not true that the free creature is the 
victim of external influences. He may preserve his 
chastity in the midst of the most fiery temptations, as 
he may lose it in the sternest school of morality. The 
will alone gives the final decision. To hold any other 
view is to lower man to the level of the brute. 
How, on such a theory, could we explain repentance, 
reformation of life, and all that which results from an 
inward change, while the outward circumstances of 
the life remain unaltered ? Reason constrains us then 
to admit that if the outward accidents of life are not 
under our control, it is in our power to make good 
or bad use of them, by virtue of that Word who is 
as a judge within us, discriminating between the evil 
and the good.t Origen quotes, in support of this 
thesis, the words of Scripture which appeal to human 
freedom, the great Divine declarations which set before 
man good and evil, death and life,]: and above all the 
appeals made by Jesus to sinners. § The texts which 
seem to favour the idea of predestination are carefully 

^' " De Princip.," iii. i, 2, 4. f Ibid., iii. i, 6. 

I Micah vi. 3 ; Deut. xxx. 15. § Matt. v. 37 ; Rom. ii. 4. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 311 

considered by him. If it is said that God hardened 
Pharaoh,* this proves that he was not by nature 
devoted to hardness of heart, as the gnostics as- 
sert. The Epistle to the Hebrews gives us the true 
solution of this declaration, in the passage in which 
it speaks of the same rain from heaven fertilising the 
good ground, and leaving the barren land in its sterility.! 
Thus the same graces produce effects differing accord- 
ing to the various dispositions of men's hearts. " It is 
as though the sun were to speak with a voice and say: 
My beams now melt, now harden, the substances on 
which they fall. There is nothing in this contrary to 
right and reason. Does not the same heat liquefy wax 
and desiccate clay ? So in like manner the very same 
Divine power, acting by Moses, hardened Pharaoh 
because of his wickedness, and subdued some of the 
Egyptians, who joined themselves to the Hebrews. "| 
While this hardening is the chastisement due to rebel- 
lion, it is a mingling of love and justice ; for so far from 
devoting Pharaoh to irremediable ruin, God holds out 
to him a hope of salvation in the other life, and only 
smites to heal, for He knew how to bring him back.§ 
Such is likewise the case of the rebellious and heedless 
hearers of the word of Christ, upon whom Pie pro- 
nounces such terrible judgments. When God declares 
by the prophet that He will give a heart of flesh for the 
heart of stone, '| this does not imply that our Vvdll is to 
have no share in the change, any more than when He 
promises by the mouth of the Apostle Paul "to work 

* Exod. iv. 21, f Heb. vi. 7. "De Princip.,'"' i. 10. 

X Ibid., iii. i-ii. 

§ 'O Tuiv oXwv Oebg, ewoJg ttCjc kcu rlv ^apaCo dyei. (Ibid., iii. 14.) 
11 Ezek. xi. 14. 



312 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

in us to will and to do."* Liberty is, after all, God's 
first gift to man, and to Him we owe it that we are 
free spiritual creatures. The ship is saved from the 
tempest only by the protection of God ; nevertheless 
it would have been lost if the sailors had not toiled 
at the pumps and in the rigging. t In discussing that 
formidable chapter, the ninth of the Epistle to the 
Romans, Origen shows without difficulty that the 
human clay was not passive in the hands of the potter, 
since the same apostle declares that " if a man keep 
himself from evil, he shall be a vessel unto honour in 
the household of God."| He finds, moreover, a con- 
venient means of escape from all difficulties in his 
doctrine of the pre-existence of souls. 

Free will is then the condition of all moral creatures. 
They are called to a share in the Divine life by the 
Word. Their number is determined, but it is in their 
own power to regulate their destiny. According to the 
choice they make, they will be a very race of gods, or 
they will fall under the power of evil. They are destined 
to attain by a spiritual act to their goal, which is in God 
Himself. They are not, moreover, left to their own 
strength ; they receive divine assistance; grace supports 
the will of the creature, § and the Holy Spirit coincides 
with man's free will, proportioning His gifts according 
to the manner in which His appeals are received. 

This theory of liberty is incomplete upon one im- 
portant point. Origen does not get beyond the idea of 
free will. He recognises only that phase of freedom in 

- Phil. ii. 13. "De Princip.," iii. 15, 16. f Ibid., iii. 18. 

I Ibid., iii. 20. 

§ " Domini semper auxilio indigemus." (" Select, in. Psalm.," 
chap. ii. 4, 2, vol. ii. 672.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 313 

which the will is summoned to make its choice. He 
ignores that second period of the spiritual life, in which, 
the choice having been made, the good is attained and 
freedom finds its consummation in the normal develop- 
ment of the being. In other words, he admits only 
negative liberty, that of conflict and trial, not the 
positive liberty which consists in the realisation of our 
moral destiny. Both are of equal importance. Without 
the power of free choice, good is no longer anything 
more than a natural necessity ; the soul brings forth 
that which is good, as the ground brings forth the grass 
and the corn ; it loses entirely its moral character. It 
is absolutely essential, then, that liberty should pass 
through a period of trial, and be placed in a position to 
assert its determination. But from another point of 
view, it is no less necessary that this period should have 
an end, and the ordeal lead to a definite issue. When 
the will has decided for good, that choice is no more 
a revocable act, but a definitely acquired condition 
of soul. Origen was on the track of the true solution 
when he established that God possesses the good by 
His very essence, and cannot by possibility be parted 
from it. As he could not admit the idea that God was 
not sovereignly free, he was led to conceive of a higher 
form of liberty, which was something beyond mere 
freedom p£ choice. Had he followed out this thought, 
he would have discovered that free choice is but the first 
stage of liberty for the created being. Man, in fact, 
holds from the first a relative, not an absolute, position ; 
he must accept voluntarily the law of his being and thus 
fulfil his moral destiny. Free choice is only the pre- 
paration for the essential liberty which consists precisely 



314 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

in this acceptance of the divine law, and in the quiet 
and continuous development of the true human nature 
finding its consummation in God. In consequence of 
this defective view, religious history becomes, in the 
system of Origen, a drama without a conclusion, which 
is perpetually recommencing, and, as it were, repeating 
itself. The brain wearies in watching this restless, 
ever-revolving whirlpool. 

We have seen that all spiritual beings bear a common 
resemblance as they emerge from the hands of God. 
This is the inevitable consequence of the system, since 
all differences among them are supposed to arise from 
the diversity of their own moral determinations. There 
exists then, at first, only one spiritual nature made in 
the image of God, but not partaking of His absolute 
essence. This nature is destined to fix its own place in 
the scale of beings. God created, at the same time, 
matter, not as that heavy and dense corporeality 
familiar to us, but as a subtle, mobile, malleable sub- 
stance, capable of assuming any form. " Corporeal 
nature is subject to the most diversified changes, and 
can transform itself after any manner. Thus we see 
wood becoming fire, fire changing into smoke, smoke 
melting into air."* Matter was created by God in 
order to give outward form to moral determinations, 
serving as an envelope to the soul, more or less ethereal 
or gross, according as its choice is made for good or 
evil. 

There is an entire spiritual history antecedent to what 
we call the creation of the world, and creation is only 

;;; a £x rebus ipsis apparet quod diversam variamque permuta- 
tionem recipiat natura corporea, ita ut possit ex omnibus in omnia 
transformari." (" De Princip.," ii. i, 4.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 315 

the result of that which took place before our pale sun 
shone upon our earth, which is at once a place of pun- 
ishment and of reparation. Everything in our present 
existence depends upon acts freely performed in an 
anterior condition of life, and the position of all beings 
is determined by their own previous choice. Our 
existence in this world is the judgment passed upon 
our existence in an earlier state. All the various con- 
ditions, which we observe here, correspond to the same 
diversity in rational beings, and are all determined by 
the different measure in which souls have fallen from 
the primal unity.* 

Matter becomes a heavy clog on beings who have 
fallen most deeply, while it is, as it were, etherealised 
and made luminous for those of a higher order. t It 
follows that the sublime commencement of Holy 
Scripture is a sym]iQ.l rather than narrative, but a 
symbol embodying the highest spiritual realities.! 
The fall was universal, though unequal. The first 
spirit who fell from the divine life was Satan ; he grew 
impatient of the contemplation of the Father, and sought 
i/independence ; he brought about his ruin by his own 
free act.§ Pride is the essence of sin, which always 
consists in the exaltation of self, in the refusal to submit 
to the Creator, and in severance from the source of life 
as the necessary consequence. |i As God alone is good, 

* OoTOJ Ss TTOiKtXojrdTOv rov K6(yj.iov rv^xavovToq, kcli roaavra dtdcpopa 
\oytKra Trepdxovrog, ri dWo xp^ \kyav airiov yeyovevai rov v7ro7Tr]vai avrov 
ij TO ttolklXov Tiig aTroTrrwcgw^ rivv ovx ofxoiojg Trig evddog aTroppeovTuiv. 
("De Princip.," ii. i, i.) f Ibid., ii. 2, 2. 

I " Homil. i. in Genes.," 12, vol. ii. 53. 
§ " Contra Cels.," vi. 44. 

II " Inflatio, superbia, arrogantia peccatum diaboli est, et ob hsec 
delicta ad terras migravit de coelo. Superbia peccatis omnibus 
major est." (" Homil. in Ezekiel," ix. 2, vol. iii. 389.) 



3l6 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

goodness is identical with absolute being, and sin is 
a diminution, an enfeebling of the life, a progress 
towards death, a ceasing to be.* To sin is to die, for 
it is to be separated from God, and death is nothing 
but separation from life. 

The convulsion caused by the rebellion of Satan was 
felt by all spirits, but in various degrees ; for each one 
has a separate volition, and is only brought under the 
influences to which it yields of its own accord. The 
first consequence of the rebellion among the spirits was 
corporeal existence. In truth, in separating themselves 
from God, spirits leave their centre of unity ; they 
become divided and isolated as they enter the domain 
of matter, which multiplies its forms and displays 
infinite suppleness in its expression of the various 
determinations of the spiritual nature. Thus is formed 
in space the vast graduated scale of beings, every step 
of the ladder corresponding exactly to the degree of 
obliquity in the moral creature. 

Without dwelling on the fantastic cosmology which 
Origen derives from the dreams of the Platonists, we 
shall notice his leading thought of a hierarchy, the 
gradations of which correspond precisely to the free 
determinations formed by pure spirits before the exist- 
ence of this universe. This hierarchy is not unchanging; 
souls ascend or descend by various grades according to 
their merits or demerits, perpetually changing forms in 
the incessant mutation of their moral dispositions, which 
attain to higher degrees of purity by means of these 
very changes, for love being always a co-operative 
principle with the justice of God, all punishment is 
* To TTovTjpbv Kai KUKov ovK 6v. (''In Joanii.," book ii. 7, vol. iv. 65.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 317 

at the same time correction, and tends to ameliorate 
the guilty. " We hold that God, the Father of all 
beings, has ordered all things (in the existing world) 
for the salvation of all His creatures, by the ineffable 
reason of His Word and of His wisdom."* Only the 
brute creation is excluded from this moving hierarchy, 
since the moral creature cannot unite itself with the 
beast, which has no higher soul than that in the blood. 
Origen positively repudiates the Indian or Pythagorean 
doctrine of metempsychosis. 

At the highest point of the hierarchy of beings are 
those who have least betrayed their trust. These 
are those whom the Scripture calls gods. Then come 
thrones, principalities, and powers, among which Origen 
places the stars, sun, and moon.t The angels are set 
over various countries, or they perform certain functions, 
as Gabriel, who is the angel of war. They thus watch 
over the inferior creation, as well as over man.t If 
they are fallen, as the fact of their corporeal form, how- 
ever transparent and glorious it may be, proves that 
they are, the degradation is very slight : they are at any 
rate already purified and raised again. They have a 
law, and will be judged in their turn. The evil angels 
or demons were the instigators of the universal fall, 
being led on by Satan, their chief. § They have a dark 

'^ " Opinamur parentem omnium Deum pro salute universarum 
creaturarum suarum singula dispensasse." (" De Princip.," ii. i, 2.) 

f " In Joann.," book i. 34, vol. iv. p. 35. " Stellas rationabiles 
animantes." (Ibid., i. 7, 3.) 

I " Angelos officia promeruisse putandum est ex suis meritis.'' 
(Ibid., i. 8, I.) 

§ " Manifestissime ostenditur cecidisse de ccelo is qui prius erat 
Lucifer. ^Principatum egit in eos quie jus malitise obsecuti sunt." 
(" De Princip.," i. 5, 5.) 



3l8. THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

body, which is the evidence of their perversity. 
Enshrouded in this ignominious darkness, they inhabit 
the regions of the air, and exert a fatal power over 
mankind.* They form the organised forces of evil, and 
yet they are not incapable of a return to good.t The 
righteous hold them in check by their good actions, for 
holiness breaks their power.J Every man has his 
demon, as each has his good angel : § plagues and lying 
oracles come from Satan and his angels. 

Midway between the demons and the angels is placed 
a being in whom weakness is joined to grandeur — 
a true microcosm, bearing at once the impress of a 
divine origin and the stigma of the Fall. This being 
is man. In order to understand his original condition, 
we must go back beyond the Adam of Genesis, who was 
already fallen to the level of corporeal life. Man, as he 
appears to us, is no more the direct handiwork of God 
than angel or demon. He also was originally pure spirit, 
and the place he now occupies was determined by the 
part he took in the universal fall : he has sunk lower 
than the angels, less low than demons. Hence his 
intermediate position. We must even go further. 
Although, as a matter of fact, all the members of 
mankind are alike in their nature, and although 
all have fallen in the same manner, the differences 
which we perceive among men prove that there have 
been degrees in this universal fall. The disposition 

* " Cohortatio ad Martyr.," 45. 

f "Secundum nos ne diabolus ipse incapax fuit boni. Nulla 
natura est quae noh""recipiat bonum vel malum." (" De Princip.," 
i. 8, 3.) I " Homil. in Joshua," xv. 6, vol. ii. 434. 

§ " Unicuique duo assistunt angeli, alter justitiae, alter iniquita- 
tis." (" Homil. in Luke," xii. vol. iii. 945.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 319 

of the various nations over the face of the globe, as well 
as the diversities of individual lot, are all alike deter- 
mined by acts of the will, which took place before 
history begins.* Original sin is not a collective thing. 
It has been committed by all who suffer from its conse- 
quences, and those consequences are in exact proportion 
to the greater or less gravity of the fault. t Character 
itself is not a fatality of nature ; it is a spiritual seed 
brought from the higher region whence we have fallen. 
This seed is the product of our antecedent life, and it 
may be choked or developed, according to our course 
of life on earth. Speaking of the seed of Abraham, 
Origen gives it to be understood that those who can 
claim to be of it are those who have brought with them 
from a previous life some spiritual nobility. '' All 
men," he says, " do not come into this human life 
with the germs of the Word hidden in their souls. "| 

We have seen that free will retains all its power 
even in this world of the fallen. Origen admits, how- 
ever, that having once descended, through our own 
fault, to this earth, we form part of a whole which acts 
upon us for good or for evil. It is not possible for us to 
escape prematurely from this influence. This is evi- 
dent from the doctrine of redemption and of final 
restoration, which will not adapt itself to an absolute 

''= " In initio mundi ita dispersi sunt filii illius Adam sicut illorum 
merita postulabant." (" In Numer. Homil.," 28, 4, vol. ii. 385.) 

f This appears from the curious passage in which Origen speaks 
of the distinction between animals clean and unclean as the symbol 
of the diversity of the moral condition of man, which proceeds not 
from a fatality of nature, but from the determinations of the will. 
(" In Lev. Homil.," vii. 7, vol. ii. 227.) 

J ArjXov on oh TravTSQ dv9p(i)7rot fierd (nrepixaTiKwv Xoyiuv riov lyKaratT' 
TrapevTOJV avrujv raZg xpvx^aiQ np (S'k^ tCjv dv0pu>7r(x)v tmSedtJixriKaaL, (" In 
Joann.," book xx. 2, vol. iv. 308.) 



320 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

individualism. The idea of solidarity appears, though 
but indistinctly, in the system of Origen. He admits 
the influence of parents over children, and recognises 
the transmission of evil, not only by natural descent, 
but also by example.* 

Let us look somewhat more closely at man as he 
appears to us in his actual condition. Though fallen, 
he yet retains a divine spark within. The Word is 
asleep within him, like Jesus in the tempest-tossed boat.f 
This fallen being may become like the angels — like God 
Himself. I He thus rises from mere resemblance to 
a complete conformity to the divine type. The germ 
of the Word in him is his conscience, which is like 
a sixth sense, the sense of the divine, § inherent in his 
higher soul. The corporeal organism, which in its 
actual form is the punishment of his previous rebellion, 
is animated by a second soul. This is expressly distin- 
guished from the higher part of our being, which is the 
spirit. II This is a physical soul, as it were. In our 
present condition, the body is bound to its spiritual 
part, and cannot sever itself. It is not then in itself 
evil, though it is the result of the fall. Our appetites 
are only sinful when they lead us into evil. II The 

* " Omnes qui in hoc mundo nascuntur non solum nutriuntur a 
parentibus, sed et imbuuntur et non solum sunt filii peccatorum, sed 
et discipuli." (" In Rom.,'" book v. 2, vol. iv. 553.) 

f "Adhuc in infidelibus sermo dormitat." (" In Cantic. Homil.," 
ii. 9, vol. iii. 21.) 

I " In Levit. Homil.," ix. 11, vol. ii. 244. ^wtvdujfx^v yevsaOai Oeoi. 
(" In Joann.," book xx. 23, vol. iv. 347.) 

§ " Sensum divinum." ("In Cantic," i. vol. iii. 42, 43.) 

II " Anima dici potest sensibilis et mobilis." (" De Princip.," ii. 
8, I.) " Alia sunt quce sub animse nomine et alia quse sub spiritus 
nomine deputantur." (Ibid., ii. 8, 4.) 

% ^vaiQ (TUJixarog ov jxiapd. (" Contra Cels.," iii. 42.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 32I 

higher soul, or the spirit, ought to rule and govern 
them, for it is capable of acting upon the inferior soul. 
Everything depends on the decision of the will, which 
can triumph over temptation. Origen has only repro- 
duced the triple psychological division of St. Paul : 
first, the higher soul, which is called the spirit; second, 
the physical soul ; third, the body.* 

Man, by the gravity of his sin, has fallen under the 
empire of Satan, and has introduced evil into the 
region which he inhabits.! He might have triumphed 
over it even since his fall, but the power of the demons 
has become terrible over him. It has gone on growing 
through his fault, till he has no longer power to resist 
it ;t he is lost if he does not receive superhuman aid.§ 
This superhuman aid is redemption. 

§ III. Redemption. 

The Word is the chief actor in the work of redemp- 
tion, which is simply the restoration for fallen spirits 
of the plan of creation. Its object is to bring them 
back to the divine life, to that state of perfection in God 
in which they shall be freed from the heavy material 
frame under which they now groan. The Word is per- 
petually working for this result. His mercy is more 
mighty than the power of evil which is against us; 
He is able to give us back our lost liberty ; He bears 
within Him the divine life, and can restore it to 



"^^ " Spiritus, anima, corpus." (" In Exod. Homil.," iii. 3, vol. ii. 
1 37-) f " Contra Cels.," vii. 28. 

X HavTog a/xapTUiXov KaraTvpavvoviikvov vtto tov dpxovTog rov alCivog 
TovTov. ("De Oratione," 25.) 

§ " In Rom.," book v. i, vol. iv. 550, 551. 

22 



322 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

those who by their own fault have forfeited it.* The 
work of redemption has been going on upon earth 
without cessation ever since the Fall. The law — the 
purpose of which is to check the motions of sin, and 
to reveal the divine justice — is the first manifestation 
of the Word. He next appeared in the person of the 
prophets, to shed His brightness upon our moral dark- 
ness. t Thus is demonstrated that unity of the two 
Testaments, which Gnosticism so persistently denied.! 
There cannot be by possibility any opposition between 
the Old Covenant and the New, as justice opposed to 
love. These two divine attributes are entirely one. 
'' If goodness is virtue and righteousness, righteous- 
ness is, beyond question, also goodness. "§ It follows 
that the God of the law is identical with the God of 
the Gospel. 

The Word does not reveal Himself by oracles only ; 
He acts directly upon the human soul, which sighs 
after His supreme manifestation.^ In fact, neither the 
law nor prophecy is able to overcome error and sin. 
Man is incapable of rising to the pure light. Hence 
the Word stoops down to him, to enlighten and 
teach him obedience. " Who could save the soul of 
man, and bring it back to the supreme God, but the 
God-Word, who, being from the beginning with God, 
became flesh in order to make Himself visible to those 

* " De Princip.," i. 2, 4. 

f " Per legem purificatio peccatorum coepit operiri. Mittuntur in 
auxilium legis prophetae." ("In Epist. ad Rom.," book v. i, vol. 
iv. 550.) 

I " Unus atque idem Deus legis et Evangeliorum." (" De 
Princip.," ii. 4, 2.) 

§ " Ergo si bonum virtus et justitia virtus est, sine dubio justitia 
bonitas est." (Ibid., ii. 5, 3.) || " In Cantic," book i. vol. iii. 37. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 323 

who, being bound to and limited by this corporeal 
nature, could not have seen Him as the Word with 
God ? Speaking with human voice, and preaching in 
the flesh, He calls these carnal beings to Himself, in 
order to conform them first to the Word Incarnate, and 
then to raise them to the vision of that which He was 
before His humiliation."* He humbled Himself, and 
took upon Him the form of a servant, and became 
obedient unto death, that He might teach obedience to 
those who by obedience alone could be saved. t The 
incarnation itself remains for ever an impenetrable and 
sublime mystery, which no intellect can comprehend, 
no words express, t 

This grand doctrine presented indeed special diffi- 
culties from the standpoint of the system of Origen. 
A sincere and earnest Christian, he accepted this cen- 
tral doctrine of the Gospel, and firmly believed that 
the Son of God had humbled Himself and assumed 
our inferior nature to restore and save it. He expresses 
with pathetic eloquence his sense of this act of love. 
*' The Saviour," he says, " abased Himself even into 
the dust for the love of mankind. "§ This is the lan- 
guage of truly Christian feeling ; but speculation soon 
comes in to obscure the view. Origen is too consum- 
mate a logician to sacrifice the fundamental principles 
of his system. Now the first of these principles is the 
immutability of the Divine life. It is not then ad- 

* "OcTTig iv npxy T^'pog tov Oeov wv did tovq KoXKrjOkvTag ry capKi Kai 
■yevopsvovQ orrep crdp^, lyevero crdpS,- (" Contra Cels.," vi. 68.) 

f " Unigenitus Filius Dei exinanivit semetipsum, obediens usque 
ad mortem ut obedientiam doceret eos qui non aliter nisi per 
obedientiam salutem consequi poterant." (" De Princip,," iii. 7, 6.) 

I Ibid., ii. 6, 2. 

§ Aid (piXaQpomiav ZavTuv iKf-Vioaer. (" Contra Cels,," iv, 1 5.) 

22 * 



324 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

missible that the Word should suffer any degradation ; 
He could neither suffer nor die. Again, the human 
body is the consequence of sin ; it is not simply matter 
created by God, and which has in itself nothing that 
is evil ; it is the matter which God created rendered 
dense and gross, as it were, as the result of the evil 
determinations of the spirit which it holds in deserved 
captivity. The Word could not then assume directly 
this gross corporeal nature. Even though He were 
conceived of the Spirit, still the formation of the human 
body is the result of antecedent sin. How then could 
the doctrine of the incarnation be harmonised with this 
irremediable dishonour of the corporeal life ? Origen 
seeks to escape from this dilemma by means of his 
singular doctrine of the human soul of Christ. As the 
Word could not unite itself directly to a body, it unites 
itself to a human soul, which human soul can without 
difficulty take up its abode in mortal flesh. This soul 
becomes therefore, as it were, the mediator between the 
Godhead and flesh.* This human soul will be truly 
linked to the clay of which our body is formed ; it will 
share all its weaknesses and pains. It will even ex- 
perience the bitterness and agony of death, and thus 
the Word, while remaining Himself impassible and 
glorious, will be able to communicate eternal life to 
mankind. Origen applies to the human soul of Jesus 
his great principle of the classification of beings, which 
is uniformly the free determination of the will. The 
human soul which received the honour of being chosen 

* " Hac substantia animas inter Deum carnemque mediante (non 
enim possibile erat Dei naturam corpori sine mediatore misceri), 
nascitur Deus homo ilia substantia media subsistente." (" De 
Princip.," ii. 6, 3.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 325 

by the Word was the only one which had merited 
this honour in the anterior hfe ; it had kept the law 
of God, and was itself pure from all sin. This spotless 
purity made it the fit receptacle for the excellence of 
the Divine life. The heavenly treasure was enclosed 
in a precious vessel. " As the diversity of souls pro- 
ceeds from the free choice of each one, according to the 
degree of love in each for its Creator, so it follows that 
that soul of which Jesus says, ' No man can take it 
from Me,' had been joined to Him from the beginning 
by a strong, indissoluble bond, inasmuch as He is the 
wisdom and the Word of God, truth, and absolute light. 
Having thus received Him in His fulness into the very 
essence of its being, and losing itself, as it were, in 
His resplendent brightness, this soul became essentially 
one and the same spirit with Him."* 

The defects of this theory are grave and numerous. 
In the first place it destroys the reality of the union 
of the Word with our human nature. For this soul that 
had never sinned cannot be a human soul according to 
the general principles of Origen's system. Humanity, 
as we have seen, is a peculiar form of existence which 
corresponds to a certain moral condition, and this 
moral condition is characterised by sin. Man was not 
directly created by God, any more than ang€l or demon. 
He was born a pure spirit, like all moral creatures, 
and he became man as the result of the moral deter- 
mination which fixed his place in the scale of beings. 
This perfectly holy soul, then, to which the Word is 
united, is not a human soul ; it does not belong to the 

']< " Pro liberi arbitrii facultate." (" De Princip.," ii. 6, 3.) 'M 
avSpayaOfjixaTOg tovtov tvx<!Ji'. (Ibid., ii. 6, 4.) 



326 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

class of the children of Adam. Again, we fail to under- 
stand how such a soul could unite itself to the body, 
which, while it is not in itself polluted, is nevertheless 
a form inseparable from sin. If such a union can be 
conceived because the human soul is capable of change, 
it is again inconceivable on the ground of its possession 
of perfect holiness. It is evident that the incarnation 
of Jesus, as understood by Origen, bears but a very 
distant resemblance to that which the Gospel presents. 
The unity of the person of the Redeemer is no less 
gravely compromised than the reality of the union 
with humanity : we fall at once into absolute dualism. 
Origen, comparing the sacrifice of the Cross with the 
sacrifice of Abraham, identifies the Word — that is to 
say, the Divine nature of the Redeemer — w^ith the 
oiferer, while Isaac, or the victim, represents the human 
nature of Jesus.* Only that which was human died 
on Calvary ; the Word retained all the fulness of the 
Divine life.t The iron glowing red from the action 
of the fire upon it, symbolises the action of the Divine 
nature upon the human, which was completely trans- 
fused with the Divine fire. J The Word in Jesus is like 
a statue reproduced in miniature, but preserving all its 
symmetry and beauty of form. His humanity is nothing 
else than the pedestal of the Divine statue, designed to 
bring it within the range of our vision. § 

In such a conception human nature is not destined 
to be eternally glorified in the person of Christ ; it 

■■' " Ideo ipse et hostia et pontifex. Patitur in carne cujus aries 
forma est." (" In Genesis," book viii. vol. ii. 83.) 

f 'ATreOavev 6 avOpojirog' ovk airkQav^v 6 B^og Xoyog. (" In Joann.," 28, 
14, vol. iv. 397. Comp. Ibid., 6, 35, vol. iv. 152.) 

I " De Princip.," ii. 6, 6. § Ibid., i. 2, 8. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 327 

is a transient form, meant to vanish away. The Saviour 
was man ; He is man no longer.* How could it be 
otherwise, since the climax of history will be a return 
to its starting-point, which is the unity of spirits in 
God ? Jesus Himself then will return to this unity; 
He will cast away His humanity as a chrysalis form, 
by means of which He prepared the full development 
of the sons of Adam for the glorious day in which, 
restored to their primal state of pure spirits, they will 
spread their wungs in the regions of light. On this side 
Origen's system is marred by a subtle docetism. If 
he admits the reality of the body of Christ, it is subject 
to his own definition of matter as an essentially mobile 
and changing substance. Thus he did not hesitate to 
allow that the body of Jesus may have put on various 
appearances. t The incarnation, as he represents it, 
is more nearly allied to the religion of India than to 
.that of the apostles. It would better become Vishnu 
than Jesus, if the speculative theories of the great 
Alexandrine doctor were not constantly modified and 
corrected by the Christian feeling which pervades the 
whole of his vague metaphysics. 

Christ was born of a woman who has preserved 
her virginity, + but who was nevertheless nothing more 
than a child of Adam. Mary shared in the Fall, which 
is the very condition of human existence. § The de- 

* E/ Kcd ijv civOpcorroc, dWd vvv ovcafxujg anriv dvOpojTroQ. (" In Jerem. 

HomiL," XV. 6, voL iii. 226.) f " Contra Cels.," iv. 16. 

I " In Luke HomiL," vii. vol. iii. 940. 

§ Even Mary was scandalised at the moment of the passion. 
" Si autem omnes peccaverunt et egent gloria Dei justificati gratia 
ejus et redempti, atque et Maria illo tempore scandalizata est." 
(" In Luke HomiL," xvii. voL iii. 952.) He expressly admits that 
Mary, as a member of fallen humanity, needed the sacrifice ap- 



328 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

velopment of the Divine Child is miraculous in charac- 
ter ; He possesses all the wisdom of God from His 
tenderest years.* His ministry lasts for three years, 
and to its tragic close the world owes its salvation. t 
He never succumbs in the conflict. If he at first 
puts away from Him the cup of woe in Gethsemane, 
it is only to accept suffering yet more bitter.]: He lies 
in the grave, like the victorious lion couching in his 
lair, and the power of His own divinity sufhces to 
bring His body back to life.§ 

Let us consider somewhat more closely the character 
of His redeeming work. There is one obscure point 
in the doctrine of Origen, namely, the effect which 
he supposes this work to have upon the whole universe. 
''Jesus Christ," he says, "is the propitiator of the 
whole world ; universal creation sighs after the grace 
of the Redeemer, and all things, in their own order, 
obtain salvation." || According to Origen, Christ 
became also the Saviour of the angels in heaven, 
assuming their form at the time of His ascension, 
and thus He is made all things to all. 51 In another 
aspect, the sacrifice of Calvary is supposed to have 
produced an effect in these higher regions, as the free 

pointed for purification: " Diceremus Mariam, quse homo erat, 
purgatione indiguisse post partum.'^ ("In Luke Homil.," xiv. vol. 
iii. 947.) * Ibid., xviii. and xix. 

f Origen does not limit the ministry of Jesus to one year, for he 
takes the words, " the year of the Lord," in Luke iv. 19, as having 
a mystical meaning. (Ibid., xxxii.) 

X Bapvrepov alriiv fxaprvpiov. (" Exhort, ad Martyr.," 29.) 

§ "In Numeros Homil.," xvii. 339. 

[| " Jesum propitiatorem non solum credentium, verum et totius 
mundi." (" In Rom. Comment.," book iii. 8, vol. iv. 516.) 

^ 2a0cDe ytyovev dvOpwiroig dvOpcjirog Kal dyykXoLg dyytXog. (" In 
Joann.," book i. 34, vol. iv. 35.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 329 

offering of love. The sanguinary drama of the cross 
is supposed to have had its counterpart in a mystical 
sacrifice, in which the Word made an offering, not 
of His material blood, but of the holy effluences of 
His Deity.* It is not possible to attach any clear 
meaning to these thoughts, which, grand as they are, 
are very vague. The one distinct impression to be 
retained is that of an indefinite extension of the 
redeeming sacrifice. Not only does it produce an 
effect in heaven above, but in the dark lower regions 
of Hades, t whither Jesus descended while the sepulchre 
was closed over Him. There He saved the spirits 
that did not reject Him. " When His soul was parted 
from the body, He preached to souls in like manner set 
free from the corporeal life, and converted to Himself 
all those who were willing to receive Him."t Thus 
the one sacrifice of Christ was offered for the whole 
moral creation. § 

In treating of the redemption of humanity, Origen 
defines his thought with more precision. The work 
of Jesus is first of all an illumination ; it enlightens 
the darkened and defective understanding, by drawing 
near to it and softening, as it were, the celestial 
brightness of the Word, which our reason could 

''' " Non solum pro terrestribus sed etiam pro ccelestibus oblatus 
est hostia Jesus ... in ccelestibus vitalem corporis sui virtutem 
velut spiritale quoddam sacrificium immolavit." (" In Levitic. 
Homil.," i. 3, vol. ii. 186.) 

t John the Baptist went before Jesus into Hades to declare His 
coming. (" In Luke Homil.," 4, vol. iii. 937.) 

J Tvjxvy GMjiaroQ '4^vxy raig yDfivalg aojiidnov wfitXa ■ipvxoliQ t7ri(jrpe(pu)v 
KciKeivcov TCLQ ^ovkofikvaQ. (" Contra Cels.," ii. 43.) 

§ MkjaQ dpxiepd'c, ovx VTrep dv9p(v—u)v fiSvov, dXXd Kal rravTOQ XoyiKoUy 
Ti)v a—a% QvcTLuv TrpodspexOeicrav eavrbv av^viyK<l)v. (" In Joann.," i. 40, 
vol. iv. 41.) 



330 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

not endure in its original glory. The incarnation 
was the culminating point of this illumination, which 
commenced with the law and the prophets. " Where 
should we find the fulness of knowledge,* if not in 
Him of whom the apostle said : ' In whom are hid 
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ' ? This 
signifies, as I suppose, that in the soul of Jesus 
incarnate, the Word of God, or the only Son, and 
the Holy Spirit do perpetually dwell. The holy soul 
of Jesus was the mediator between the Trinity and 
frail humanity. "t But to enlighten fallen man was 
not enough ; he needed to be freed from the yoke of 
the demon which pressed heavily upon him. Hence 
the supreme importance of the death of the Redeemer. 
This is not an expiation in the legal sense ; the blood 
of Christ was not shed to appease the divine anger. 
Origen maintains absolutely the profound agreement 
between the justice and the love of God. Punishment 
is never vengeance or mere satisfaction of the wrath of 
the Most High : its purpose is the purification of the 
guiky. It is the correcting rod used by the hand of 
the merciful Father. '' If the sufferings inflicted on 
sinners did not tend to their conversion, the merciful 
and gracious God would not have attached punishment 
to crime. The wrath of God has in view the amend- 
ment of the guilty ; it is intended to heal the sick 
and to correct even those who have despised His 
word."! The terrible chastisements which come upon 

- " Plenitudinem scientiarum." (" In Rom.," book iii. 8, vol. iv. 
o j^.) t Ibid., book iii. 8. 

+ " Si non esse utile conversioni peccantium adhibere tormenta 
peccantibus, nunquam misericors et benignus Deus poenis scelera 
puniret. Furorem Dei non inutilem ad sanitatem, sed adhuc 
adhiberi, ut curet segrotantes." (" In Ezek. Homil," i. 2, vol. iii. 255.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 33I 

some men in the present life, are sent to spare them 
yet more awful punishment in another. Such is the 
vengeance of the compassionate God. The end of 
all His dealings is the extirpation of evil.* The 
crucifixion of Christ was, therefore, the satisfaction, 
not so much of the justice, as of the love of God, by 
realising His glorious designs for the salvation of the 
world, t 

It is in this sense that He is said to have offered 
Himself to God.^ Nevertheless, a ransom was paid 
to Satan, who held us in bondage. We have made 
ourselves the slaves of the demon ; our sins have given 
us over to him. Christ came to redeem us, when we 
were serving the master to whom we had sold ourselves. 
His blood W'as our ransom. The devil, on the other 
hand, won us more cheaply. Murder, adultery, theft — 
wath these he bought us.§ 

" If we ask to whom Jesus Christ gave His soul a 
ransom for many, we reply — It was not to God. It 
must have been then to the evil one ! In truth, the 
evil one had us in his power until Jesus gave His 
soul to purchase ours. Satan, on this point, allowed 
himself to be deceived, believing he could retain 
the soul of Christ, and not perceiving that he would 
be unable himself to endure the torments he would 

'■^ To t'cXoq tHjv -npaynarCJv avaipiaO}]vai kori rrjv Kaiciav. (" Contra 
Cels.," viii. yz.) 

f 'Ytto row Oeov TrapadedSaOai TrpuJrov rbv v'wv 'iva dpr) rrjV aj.LapTiav. 
(" In Matt. Comment," xi. 8, vol. iii. 581.) 

I " Se ipsum obtulit Deo." ('•' In Levit. Homil," i. 2, vol. ii. 186.) 

§ " Effecti vero sumus servi diaboli secundum quod peccatis 
nostris vendidati sumus. Homicidum, adulterum, furtum, pecunia 
diaboli. Christus, pretium nostri sanguinem suum dedit." (" In 
Exod. Homil.,"' vi. 9, vol. ii. 150.) 



332 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

suffer in such a case."*' Thus is the triumph of death 
over Jesus an empty victory ; death cannot hold Him, 
for He has conquered it in its own domain. He 
even carries with Him in His triumphal train all those 
earlier captives of the tomb who believed in Him. 
The divine Lamb has become, by His sacrifice, the 
salvation of the whole world, for reasons which cannot 
be uttered. " It is for the love which the Father bears 
to humanity that the Son submitted to death, re- 
deeming us by His blood from the yoke which our 
own sins had laid upon us."t Jesus made only His 
human soul an offering ; this alone endured the 
sufferings of the cross. 1 The divine nature could 
not feel the touch of sin and death. We have seen, 
indeed, that the Word made the human soul to which 
He was united a sacrifice on Calvary, as the high 
priest offers up the victim. The dying cry of Jesus, 
''My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" 
marks the lowest depth of His humiliation, not the 
anger of the Father, to whom He committed His 
divine Spirit. § Since He had placed this in the hands 
of His Father, it did not form a part of the ransom 
paid to the devil. It was, then, the human soul which 
He offered up, " for the Godhead could not be given 
as a ransom ;"|| and even this soul, forsaken as it was, 

* TivL iSiOKe Tt)v 'ipvxV'^ avrov Xvrpov avri ttoWwv ; ov yap h) t(^ Oap, jxrj 
Tt ovv Tip TTOvrjpq) ; ovTog yap lyKpdrei rfjxujv, 'iojQ So9}j to virsp y/jjLuiv avT(p 
\vTpov if Tov 'Ir}(Tov -ip^X^) o.7TaTriQkvTi, iog ovvafikvqj avTtig Kvpievaai. 
(" In Matt.," xvi. 8, vol. iii. 726.) 

t Kara Tr]v tov TraTpbg ^iXavOpoJTriav Trjv acppayrjv aveSe^aro, wvovfievog 
T(Z eavTOv dijxaTi dirb tov Toig a/AapTiaig rjjxdg TrnrpaaKOfikvovg dyopdaavrog. 
(" In Joann.," vi. 36, vol. iv. 152.) 

:j: Xdjplg Oeov. (Ibid., xxvii. 14, vol. iv. 393.) 

§ " In Matt, Comment.," xvi. 8, vol. iii. 726. 

II Tijv QeoTTjTa jxrj^' dv dicvvdaOai \vTpov ^oBi'jvai. (Ibid., xvi. 8, vol. 
iii. .727.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 333 

proved mightier than the adversary, for it triumphed 
over him in the gloomy realm of death as upon earth, 
carrying liberty even there to the sons of Adam.* 
Thus the devil, who thought to gain the mastery over 
the Redeemer, found himself defrauded, and had no 
power to retain even the ransom paid him, as is proved 
by the resurrection. He lost all right over humanity, 
while his power was set at nought by the victorious 
Christ. The legitimate king overcame the tyrant 
even in his own realm, and trampled his power 
under foot. 

If we ask in what manner the sufferings of the human 
soul of Jesus achieved this decisive victory, we receive 
answer that it is by virtue of the holiness they reveal. 
Without doubt, suffering and death are a sort of acknow- 
ledgment and acquittal of the claim which our sins have 
given to the evil one, but this payment of our debt 
would not issue in our deliverance if an Almighty moral 
power was not manifested in these very sufferings of 
Him who was made like unto us. So true is this, that 
this holiness, even when imperfectly displayed, as in the 
martyrdom of the saints, reveals the same virtue and 
tends to break the power of Satan. t "The cross is the 
culminating point of the power of martyrdom, as mar- 
tyrdom is a continuation of the crucifixion. Just as, 
under the Mosaic law, those who sprinkled the altar 
with the blood of bulls and of goats were commissioned 
to declare in the name of God the forgiveness of sins, 
so the soul of Christians who have suffered death for 
the name of Jesus pleads before the altar, and becomes 
the medium of pardon to those who seek it. We know, 

- "In Rom.," V. 10, vol. iv. 567. f "Ad Martyr.," 31. 



334 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

indeed, that as our high priest Jesus Christ made Him- 
self a sacrifice, so the priests who serve under Him 
yield themselves also as a holy offering, and truly belong 
to the sanctuary. Who is the blameless priest, w^ho 
offers a pure sacrifice, if it be not he w^ho witnesses 
steadfastly a good confession for his Master, even till he 
has sealed it with a martyr's death."* Again we read : 
*' We must believe that the powers of evil are overcome 
by the death of the martyrs. Their faithfulness, their 
perseverance even unto blood, and the ardour of their 
piety, have weakened the empire of evil, not over them- 
selves alone, but over all mankind. When a man 
crushes a serpent, he not only delivers himself from a 
great peril, but he ensures the safety of others also. 
What must we think of the Lamb of God, who was 
made a victim, not to take away the sin of some men, 
but the sin of the world, for which He suffered ?"t 
Plainly, it is the moral character of this sacrifice which 
gives it its chief value. It exhibits in their full power 
those very virtues which exert a victorious influence, 
even when incompletely manifested in the holy death of 
the confessors. Hence the suffering of Christ, while it 
is a ransom offered to the devil, is at the same time a 
holy sacrifice to God. It teaches us obedience, while 
it redeems from sin. 

It is of this sacrifice, thus regarded in its totality, 
that is to say, not merely as a ransom paid to the 
demon, but as further the fulfilment of the will of the 

* KardXvaiv ovv vofiifrrkov ■yivsaQai dvvaixetJv KUKOTroicov Sia tov Oavdrov 
tCov dyiwv ^aprvpcov, rrJQ VTTopiovfJQ avTUJV Kai tyjq oixoXoyiag fikxpi Oavdrov, 
Kox Trjc: eig TO ev(Ti€sg TrpoOv/^iag dp.t\vvovariQ to o^v Tfjg tKiiviov Kara tov 
TrdaxovTog iiritovX-rig. (" In Joann.," vi. 36, vol. iv. 153, 154.) 

j Ibid., vi. 36, 37. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 335 

Father, that Origen speaks in such sublime terms. He 
beholds in it the realisation of all the types of the Old 
Testament, of all those sanguinary rites which were 
supposed to possess expiatory and purifying virtue.* 
Jesus is the true Lamb of God, whose blood saves and 
purifies. He has taken upon Him all our woes, our 
sufferings, our sins ; He has clothed Himself, as it 
were, in our defiled garments. He was made sin, by 
assuming a body like our own.t We have deserved all 
the reproach, indignity, and evil treatment which He 
endured for our sake. He drank the cup of our con- 
demnation. If He had not drunk it, our ransom 
would not have been paid, and our ruin would have been 
without remedy. Let us then acknowledge in Him the 
high priest of the New Covenant, who died for us, 
and let us accept His blood as the ransom for the 
world.:]; The consummation of the work of salvation 
was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all the 
disciples of Christ. § 

Such is, in its general tenor, Origen's doctrine of 
redemption. Closely considered, it produces a very dif- 
ferent impression from that formed at the first glance. 
It is not just to summarise the whole in that singular 
idea of a fraudulent transaction with the demon. After 
all, it maintains the objective character of the reparatory 
sacrifice. Sin has brought in its train our subjection to 
the devil, who is the personification of all evil and of all 

■^ "In ipsum omnis hostia recapitulatur, in tantum ut, postquam 
ipse oblatus est, omnes hostiae cessaverint, quse eum in typo et 
umbra prsecesserant." (" In Levit. Homil.," iii. 5, vol. ii. 196.) 

f " Peccatum quidem non fecit, peccatum tamen pro nobis factus 
est dum qui erat -in forma Dei, in forma servi esse dignatur, dum 
qui immortalis est moritur." (Ibid., iii. i, vol. ii. 193.) 

I Ibid., xii. I, vol. ii. 249. § " De Princip.," ii. 7, 2. 



336 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

suffering, since he and his angels have all plagues and 
sicknesses at their command : death is his minister. 
He plays the part of the Satan of the Book of Job, who, 
spirit of evil as he is, yet takes his place among the 
hosts of the Lord, as subject to His control. He 
represents the destroying power to which we have sold 
ourselves by sin. Hence his claim over us is a just 
claim. In fact, however, as nothing happens without the 
will of God, he has this right only because it has been 
conceded to him. It is God who willed that a ransom 
should be paid him ; it is He who ordained that salva- 
tion should not be realised without a great and holy 
sacrifice, the victory of crucified love over sin and con- 
demnation. Unquestionably this sacrifice is not in 
Origen's view a satisfaction of the anger of God, since 
with Him justice is inseparable from love. It is also as 
far removed as possible from the system which sees in 
the infinite suffering of a God, the sole means of 
establishing a proportion between the fault and the 
punishment. We have observed that it separates ab- 
solutely the Divine Word from the human soul in the 
person of Jesus, and that the latter only is the subject 
of pain and death. The error in Origen's system is this 
positive dualism, which destroys the oneness of the 
Redeemer's personality. If he had admitted fully that 
man is of divine origin, he would not have thus parted 
the divine element from the human in Jesus ; he would 
have recognised the fulness of humanity in the incarnate 
and crucified Word. A great truth nevertheless comes 
out from his system ; it is in his view a real man who 
must offer the atoning sacrifice. The second Adam is 
alone capable of cancelling the rebellion of the first, and 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. ^^J 

of renewing the broken bond between earth and heaven; 
and he can only do this by submitting to all the conse- 
quences of the Fall, namely, to suffering and death. 
This is the ransom paid to the devil. The evil one is 
defrauded, only because the victim who suffers and dies 
on the cross triumphs over sin in that very extremity 
of sorrow and shame which seemed as if it must destroy 
His work; His apparent defeat is a victory, and His 
cross a throne. Satan had not foreseen that by this very 
annihilation of self, by those tears and that blood, holi- 
ness would be manifested in all its grandeur, and that 
the crucified Redeemer would teach men obedience, 
and by obedience would bring them back to God. 
Assuredly, this theory is a great advance upon that of 
Clement, who suppressed almost entirely the objective 
aspect of the redemption. It owes its imperfections to 
the fundamental errors of Origen's system. His Christ 
is, after all, neither God nor man in His sacrifice ; the 
God has withdrawn from Him, and the human soul 
which suffers and dies on Calvary is a strange thing, 
raised by its impeccability above humanity, and not 
corresponding to that grade of the moral ladder on 
which the race of x\dam is by its transgression placed. 
But if we forget for a moment the errors of the logician, 
if we listen to Origen only as a Christian, and consider 
simply the noble aspects of this doctrine of redemption, 
we find in it precious elements which only need to be 
disengaged from the Platonic idealism of the great 
Alexandrine, to form a large and suggestive synthesis. 

One very beautiful part of Origen's system is that 
which treats of the work of the Redeemer since the 
resurrection. Enfranchised thenceforward from the 

23 



33^ THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

limitations which the conditions of terrestrial life im- 
posed upon His action, He returns into the heavens, 
only to exercise on behalf of the Church the saving 
power of a divine love. His death, like the celestial 
fire which consumes the holocaust, causes all that was 
corporeal, external, local merely, to vanish from His 
work, which He now carries on in the fulness of His 
divine power.* He gives Himself to all and to each, 
and while He is sometimes tender, sometimes severe, 
His influence is ever gracious and sanctifying. The 
rod of repression in His hands is like the rod of Aaron, 
which in the end breaks forth in blossom. t He 
destroys evil by the breath of His mouth. A purifying 
virtue proceeds from Him, which will consume sin in 
the heart of the Christian, as the fire of the altar 
consumed the flesh of the victim. J His holy life 
during the time of His sojourn here below abides as 
the model of perfection. § His miracles symbolise the 
powerful operations of His eternal mercy. He belongs 
no longer to a little group of disciples only ; since His 
death He belongs to the whole world, and to all worlds. 
He is wisdom, truth, holiness, righteousness, strength, 
the essential good and the true life.|l 

§ IV. Conversion and the Christian Life. 

It will be anticipated that Origen will insist strongly 
upon the appropriation of salvation. His spiritual con- 

* " Omnia haec quae in corpore a salvatore gesta sunt, coelestis 
ignis absumsit et ad divinitatis ejus naturam cuncta restituit." (" In 
Levit," i. 4, vol. ii. 187,) 

f "In Joann.," i. 41. | " In Levit, Homil.," v. 3, vol. ii. 207. 

§ Jlapd^Hyixa apiarov [3iov. (" Contra Cels.," i. 68.) 

II "Ad Rom.," iv. 7, vol. iv. 533. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 339 

ception of the reconciliation forbids him to entertain 
the idea of any merely external imputation. If Christ 
has conquered sin and the devil, it is not to make us 
sharers in His triumph without any personal effort or 
any battle of our own. We are called to a share in 
the salvation, by becoming sharers in the holiness of 
the Redeemer. It is He who makes this holiness 
possible to us, first by what He did and suffered to 
break the yoke of Satan, and then by His Spirit. He 
alone transforms our nature, and the basis of this 
transformation consists in our being united to Him in 
His death and in His life by love — the sole source of 
light and holiness. We must begin by smiting on our 
breast. The part assigned to repentance in the appro- 
priation of salvation is an important one. It is like 
Elias, or John the Baptist, the forerunner of the 
Saviour, preparing the way for Him.* The redeeniing 
work is null and of no avail wherever repentance is 
wanting, for light has no connection with darkness. 
He who but half repents, has but a half salvation;! 
we are bidden to die with Christ. J Repentance must 
be earnest, deep, and renewed with every fresh sin.§ It 
has therefore a permanent part to play in the Christian 
life, as a purifying power, and there is no sin for which 
it will not secure pardon, even after conversion, at least 
in the sight of God.jl It expresses itself in honest 

'^ " In Luke Homil.," iv, vol. iii. 937. 

f " Pro mensura poenitentiae, remissionis quantitas moderatur." 
(" Select, in Psalm.," ii. vol. ii. 697.) 

I " Non enim unusquisque ipse sibi dat, sed a Christo sumit 
mortis exemplum, qui solus peccato mortuus est, ut et ipse imitatione 
ejus possit alienus et mortuus effici a peccato." (" Ad Rom.," ix. 
39, vol. iv. 661.) § " In Cantic," 6, vol. iii. 15. 

II " Novum hoc bonitatis est genus ut etiam post adulterium 

23 * 



340 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

confession before our brethren, and in real amendment, 
for if it does not bring forth fruit it is idle and useless.* 
Repentance leads to faith, which begins with the know- 
ledge of Christ — a knowledge which becomes in- 
creasingly pure and elevated, till it rises from the 
contemplation of the visible to that of the invisible and 
glorified Christ. t The true knowledge is not merely 
intellectual ; it possesses its object ; it is love, and 
produces the divine life and holiness. We love the 
God in Christ with all our heart and soul.| This love 
is at the same time obedience : it kindles a flame 
within us, and constrains us to forsake all for the 
Master. Just as repentance unites us to the Christ 
crucified, so does real faith, manifested by holy service, 
unite us to the risen Christ. § Thus justification is 
consummated in sanctification, and the two cannot be 
disjoined. Justifying faith is the inward work of love, 
as opposed to the purely external work of Pharisaism. 
*' There are two justifications — the one which the apostle 
connects with works, the other with faith. The former 
derives its glory from itself, not from God ; the second 
derives it frora God alone, who reads the heart of man, 
and who alone knows who is he that believes and he 
that believes not. The outward work is manifest and 
obvious to all. But those who are circumcised in the 
inward man, who are Jews according to the spirit, not 

revertentem tamen et ex toto corde posnitentem suscipiat animam." 
" In Exod. Homil.," viii. 5, vol. ii. 160.) 

* " In Psalm. Homil.," xxxvii. 6, vol. ii. 688, 

f " In Cantic," book iii. vol. iii. 84. 

:|: "Diliges dominum tuum in Christo." ("In Luke Homil.," 
XXV. vol. iii. 963.) 

§ " Novitas vitas qua in Christo per fidem resurrectionis ejus 
vivimus, domino deputatur/' (" Ad Rom.," ix. 39, vol. iv. 661.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 34I 

according to the letter, cannot receive their honour 
from men, but from God only."* The great defect in 
the whole of this theory of justification consists in the 
small place it assigns to the pardon of God. The work 
of Christ opens to us the way of regeneration, but this 
is not for the Christian a treasury of grace already 
won, which he appropriates by faith. It is this work of 
Christ indeed which restores life to us, and yet we have 
not received from His hands our letter of pardon. Thus 
we are never entirely saved on this side the grave ; we 
are destined to fresh purifications after death, which 
will be adapted to our moral condition. t We must 
bear in mind that, according to Origen, we shall 
always be liable, as free creatures, to fall back into 
evil. Heaven can never then be said to be securely 
gained. 

With these limitations, the importance of which we 
frankly avow, Christian morality is treated in Origen's 
system in a true and dignified manner. It all springs 
from Jesus Christ, who is called the substance of the 
virtues.! "Every soul attracts to itself and receives 
in itself the Word of God in the measure of its faith. 
When souls have thus drawn to themselves this divine 
Word, and have allowed it to penetrate their every 
thought and feeling; when they have breathed its 
perfume, they are filled wath joy and power, and run 

* " Palam est et videri oculis potest quidquid opere manifestum 
est. Hi qui secundum interiorem hominem circumciduntur, horum 
laus et gloria non apud homines, sed apud Deum." (" Ad Rom.," 
iv. vol. iv. 521.) 

f " De Princip.," ii. 11, 6. " In Jerem. Homil," vii. i, vol. iii, 167 
I "Virtutum substantiam Christum soleamus accipere." ("In 
Cantic," i. vol. iii. 45.) 



342 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

after Him."* Every good or evil action is so in its final 
relation to Jesus Christ. The false Christians, who 
forget Him in their care for the riches and concerns of 
this world, place afresh upon His brow the crown of 
thorns. t 

The inward life is that which is of the most import- 
ance, for our actions are the fruit and manifestation of 
this inner principle. Purity of spirit and of conscience 
makes all actions pure. Even participation in meat 
forbidden by the law, is no longer a thing to be carefully 
shunned, in spite of the scandal it creates among the 
Jews.! It is at the heart that God looks, for there is 
the source of evil and good, and in the heart both are 
virtually wrought. Outward things change their cha- 
racter to us according to our disposition towards them, 
and this alone is of importance. The essence of holi- 
ness is love, which has its counterpart in hatred of 
evil.§ This alone ripens and confirms true piety. Love 
brings liberty ; it frees us from the law of the letter, 
and raises us far above the Pharisaism which strains at 
a gnat and swallows a camel, making that which is 
secondary ever subordinate to that which is essential in 
the practice of right. Love is the parent of the true 
virtues, — which are self-denial, devotedness, justice, 
and mercy, li We are no longer the slaves of a law of 
coercion, but belong to that higher spiritual jurisdic- 
tion, which is directly under the inspiration of the 
eternal Word. 

* " Trahit unaquccque anima et assumit ad se verbum Dei, pro 
capacitatis et fidei suse mensura." (Ibid., i. vol. iii. 41.) 
f "In Joann.," i. 12, vol. iv. 13, 14. 

I " In Matt," book xi. 12, vol. iii. 495. 
§ " In Rom.," ix. 5, 6, vol. iv. 651. 

II " Comment. Series in Matt.," 19, vol. iii. 843. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 343 

The new law does not exclude asceticism, but it does 
not attach any intrinsic value to it, nor accredit it with 
any virtue except as facilitating the triumph of the soul 
over the body. The Christian does not fast because 
fasting was a command under the Old Covenant, but of 
his own free will. Again, he does not forget that the 
truly acceptable fast is humility of spirit and absti- 
nence from sin, and that it is not confined to limited 
and set times. " If thou wilt fast in the spirit of Christ, 
that is to say, if thou wilt humble thy soul, know that 
every moment of the year is favourable for such a fast, 
and that thy whole life should be a day of humiliation. 
Fast by abstaining from all sin ; put away from thee 
the food of malice, and the draughts of self-indulgence, 
and refrain thy lips from the intoxicating cup of luxury."* 
Ofigen, like Clement and Irenseus, does not admit 
any essential distinction among days. The Jewish 
Sabbath has disappeared, and the entire life should be 
a remembrance of Christ. " ye," he exclaims, "who 
come to church only on festival days, tell me if other 
days are not also feast days, days of the Lord ? It is 
for the Jews to observe special and set days. God hates 
those who will honour only one day as the day of the 
Lord."t There are no more any consecrated places 
than any days set apart in an exclusive sense. Chris- 
tianity knows but one altar — the believing heart." j We 

* " Totius vitse tuse dies habeto ad humiliandam animam tuam. 
Jejune ab omni peccato." (" In Levit. Homil.," x. 2, vol. ii. 245, 
246.) 

f " Odit ergo Deus qui unum diem putant festum diem esse 
Domini." (" In Genes. Homil.," x. 3, vol. ii. 88. Comp. "Select, 
in Exod.," vol. ii. 127 ; " In Numeros Homil.," 23, 2, vol. ii. 357.) 

I " Non in aliquo loco quseramus Deum." (" In Genes. Homil. ,'' 
iii. 3, vol. ii. 95.) 



344 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

are surprised to find some inconsistencies in a morality 
bearing the impress of so high a spirituality. The 
prohibition of using strangled beasts as food is regarded 
as permanent.* Second marriages, if they are not 
forbidden, are severely reprobated. t Christians are 
charged to keep aloof from public offices. | Military 
service is forbidden to the disciples of the meek and 
gentle Master, if they will be true to their name of 
children of peace, for under no pretext is it permitted 
to a Christian to cause the death of a man.§ Assuredly 
a spirit as liberal as that of Origen would not have 
maintained these restrictions in a time when the state 
did not rest on pagan foundations. How much greater 
wisdom did St. Paul display in recognising the lawful- 
ness of the civil order, regarded in itself? In Origen's 
view, the frequenting of circuses and cf theatres is* a 
sin. The soul there catches fire from the altars of 
Satan, by becoming the prey of those strong passions 
which scenic representations awaken. |j The Christian 
may not take any oath.H We wonder again to find 
Origen admitting the lawfulness of lying in extreme 
cases, as, for instance, in connection with the healing 
of the sick.** Progress in holiness is secured. by spiritual 
exercise, as agility of body results from a constant use 
of the limbs. Jesus Christ is ever present to wash the 
feet of His disciples, and to purify them from the dust 
of the way.tt Thus the new man grows in strength 

=^' " In Roman.," book ii. 13, vol. iv. 492. 

f " In Luke Homil.," 17, vol. iii. 953. 

I " Contra Cels.," viii. 73. § Ibid., iii. 7. 

II " In Levit. Homil.," ix. 9, vol. ii. 243. 

IT " In Matt. Comment. Series," 16. vol. iii. 841. 

** " Contra Cels.," iv. 19. f f " In Joann.," 32, 2, vol. iv. 405, 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 345 

and stature ; faith unites itself more closely with its 
object, and becomes science, or the deeper knowledge 
of the truth. We are made a sacrifice with Christ, and 
share in His priesthood. Almsgiving is a true sacrifice ; 
martyrdom is another, which possesses in some measure 
the purifying virtue of the crucifixion, and tends to 
break the power of the demons. Mortification and 
charity are special sacrifices, far higher than those 
offered by Israel.* Jesus accepts these sacrifices, 
which are consumed upon the inward altar by the fire 
of love, and He makes them a part of His own sacri- 
fice. In truth, we give to God only that which He has 
Himself given us. It is the spiritual sacrifice which is 
alone of value; every other is worthless. "Each one 
of us has in himself his own sacrifice, and the fire on 
that altar of sacrifice is ever burning. If I give up all 
I possess, if I take up my cross to follow Jesus Christ, 
I offer a sacrifice on the altar of my God. If I love 
my brethren so as to give my life for them, if I fight 
even to the death for righteousness and truth, I present 
my sacrifice on the altar of my God. If I mortify 
every lust of the flesh, if the world is crucified to me 
and I to the world, I have offered my sacrifice on the 
altar of my God, and I have been the priest of my own 
holocaust. t It is thus that the priesthood is exercised 
in the outer porch where the victims are offered. Then, 
as a priest clothed in holy garments, I pass from that 
outer sanctuary, within the veil, into that holy place, 
into which, as Paul says, Jesus has entered, and which 

* " Hoc modo inveniris tu verius et perfectius secundum evan- 
gelium offerre sacrificia." (" In Levit. HomiL," ii. 4, vol. ii. 191.) 

f " Ipse meae hostile sacerdos efficior." (" In Luke HomiL, ix. 9, 
vol. ii. 243.) 



346 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

is not a holy place made with hands, but heaven itself. 
Thinkest thou my Lord, who is the High Priest, will 
not deign to receive from me a portion of my poor 
oifering, which He will present to the Father in His 
own name ? Thinkest thou He will not find some 
feeble spark in the fire of my sacrifice to consume it in 
His censer, and to offer it to the Father as a sweet 
smelling savour ?"* 

§ V. The Church, Worship. The Sacrament. The End 
of all Things. 

Origen does not forget that the religious life is not 
simply something to be realised by the individual, but 
that its design is also to form a Christian society. The 
part taken by him in the ecclesiastical struggles of his 
age, and the persecutions he endured from the repre- 
sentatives of the hierarchy, sufficiently indicate the 
breadth of his point of view. The distinction between 
the Church visible and invisible is implied in his views 
of penitence. The Christian who has committed some 
fault of exceptional gravity may always find pardon 
and restoration in Christ, though he can be but once 
reinstated in the Church. t It follows that there exists 
above and beyond the Church on earth, a spiritual and 
invisible order which cannot be absolutely confounded 

"^^ " In Luke Homil," ix. 9, vol. ii. 243. 

f " In gravioribus enim criminibus semel tantum poenitentiae 
conceditur locus." (" In Levit.," xv. 2, vol. ii. 262.) The proof 
that God pardons that which the Church does not pardon, is that 
adultery is placed by Origen among the sins, the repetition of which 
incurs final exclusion from the Church (" De Oratione," 28, vol. i. 
256), while he says elsewhere that Jesus Christ pardons this like 
other sins. (" In Exod.," viii. 5, vol. ii. 160.) This distinction, 
moreover, comes out clearly from his doctrine of the final restora- 
tion of every moral creature. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 347 

with that which is visible. Restorations to or excom- 
munications from the visible Church extend only to 
the outer domain, which is all that is open to the eye of 
man, and there is no necessary ratification of these 
decisions b} the great Head of the whole Church, who 
searches the hearts. The Christian soul may appeal 
from the judgment of men to the tribunal of Christ. 
Hence ecclesiastical power is limited to the outward 
and earthly, and does not extend to the substance of 
things. The true Church goes further than the visible 
Church, and is not bound by its judgments. A large 
door is thus opened to the liberty of souls, and the 
theocratic notion is deprived of its most powerful ele- 
ment. 

It is in virtue of these same principles that Origen 
rejects anything like a restoration of an exclusive 
priestly caste. He establishes the universal priesthood 
of Christians. " The disciples of Christ," he says, 
" are true priests."* Every Christian is an apostle. 
If the Saviour sends a man to labour for the salvation 
of his brethren, that man is an apostle. t The office is 
nothing without the moral qualities which it demands. 
A bishop without a calling is not a bishop, t In every 
Christian soul there is a sanctuary where the Holy 
Spirit fulfils all His priestly functions. § Free access to 
the Master is granted to all believers. The Samaritans 

* " Discipuli sui, veri sacerdotes." (" In Levit.," vii. i, vol. ii. 220.) 

f "Ov eav dTvoaTeXKy 6 aojrrjp dioKOvrjadiisvov ry tlvojv (Tojrrjpia, 6 aTrooreX- 

XoixevoQ ccTroarokog lavLP 'Irjaov XpLdTov. ("In Joann.," 32, lO, vol. iv. 

43I-) 

I " Si quis dicit se esse sacerdotem Dei, nisi habeat pectus 
(sacerdotis) non est sacerdos." (" In Levit.," v. 12, vol. ii. 214.) 

§ " Potest unusquisque nostrum etiam in semet ipso constituere 
tabernaculum." (Ibid., 9, 4, vol. ii. 164.) 



348 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

who came to Christ carefully distinguished between 
faith and the preliminary belief which they derived 
from the saying of the woman of Sychem. They knew 
what it was to believe after they had heard the Christ 
themselves, and found that He was indeed the Saviour 
of the world. *' It is better to have a direct view of 
the Word, and to hear His teaching for ourselves, than 
simply to receive it from the lips of His servants who 
have seen Him, without beholding Him with our own 
eyes and being enlightened by His power."* The Church 
is not a hierarchy ; it has no visible head upon earth. 
The rock on which it rests is Jesus Christ. Every 
Christian may be called by the name of the apostle — 
Cephas — if he has faith. " Jesus Christ is the rock.t 
All the followers of Christ have a right to this name."| 
There is then no exclusive privilege conveyed to the 
apostle to whom these words were for the first time 
addressed. The whole Church is built, not upon his 
person, but upon his faith, which is the faith of all 
believers. § Lastly, the Church may only use in its 
own defence the peaceful sword of the Spirit. || 

The sacrament has no intrinsic value. The water of 
baptism cannot communicate the Holy Spirit by a sort 
of virtue inherent in itself. " He who receives the 
baptism of water does not necessarily receive the Holy 

* BsXtiov iaTiv avTOTrrrjv yevsaOai rov Xoyov 7]7rep fj.r} opcovTa avrbv 
^laKovujv tS)v eopaKOTOJV avrov aKOvav rov iripl avTOv Xoyov. ("In Joann.," 
xii. 52, vol. iv. 265.) 

f " Petra Christus est." (" In Numer. Homil.," 19, 3, vol. ii. 345.) 

X 'H irkrpa ovv 6 XpKTTog ' Trdvreg oi XpicrTOV fiinrjTal, Trerpa yivovrai. 
(" In Jerem.," xvi. 2, 3, vol. iii. 229.) 

§ " In Matt," xii. 10, 11, vol. iii. 523, 525. 

II " Gladium spiritus." (" In Matt. Comment. Series," loi, vol. 
iii. 907.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 349 

Spirit."* If any one comes to baptism still in his sins, 
he does not therein receive the forgiveness of his faults, t 
Baptism is but a symbol;! the invocation of the Trinity 
is that v^hich imparts to it all its virtue. § Children 
may receive holy baptism as a sign of the regeneration 
of which every human being stands in need.|] 

The Lord's Supper is not a material sacrifice, for 
there is no place for any such offering in the New 
Covenant, which recognises no other sacrifice than that 
of the cross. 1," The elements used in the sacrament 
undergo no change. The soul is fed in the Lord's 
Supper by the blood and body of the Word " which are 
His sayings."** Let us not seek anywhere else the bread 
which comes down from heaven, the mystic vine from 
which flows the holy beverage of the Christian soul. 
" It was not then the bread which He held in His 
hands which Jesus called His body, nor was the cup 

"^ " Qui accipit aquam non accipit Spiritum sanctum ; qui lavatur 
in salutem, et aquam accipit et Spiritum sanctum." (" In Ezek. 
Homil.," 6, 5, vol. iii. 378.) 

t " Si quis peccans ad lavacrum venit, ei non fit remissio pecca- 
torum." (" In Luke Hon\il.," 21, vol. iii. 957.) 

X T^ov vcarog Xovrpuv, avfi%o\ov rvyx'^^^^v KaQapa'iov ■^vxi']Q. (" In 
Joann.," book vi. 17, vol. iv. 133.) 

§ T//(,- cvvdjjiEujg TrJQ Trpocncvvqrtjg rpidcog l7riKX)](Teojv. (Ibid., vi. 1 7, 
vol. iv. 133.) 

II "Ecclesia ab apostolis traditionem suscepit etiam parvulis 
baptismum dare. Sciebant enim quod essent in omnibus genuinas 
sordes peccati, quae per aquam et Spiritum ablui deberent." (" In 
Rom.," V. 9, vol. iv. 565.) 

IT " Possunt sacrificia spiritaliter offeri, quae modo carnaliter non 
possunt." (" In Exod.," xi. 6, vol. ii. 171 ; " In Levit. v. 7, vol. ii. 
210.) " In his omnibus unus est agnus qui totius mundi potuit 
auferre peccatum et ideo cessaverunt cseterse hosti^. Ideo spiritalia 
sacrificia jugulemus." (" In Numeros," 24, i, vol. ii. 363.) 

*'■' " Bibere dicimur sanguinem Christi, non solum sacramentorum 
ritu, sed et cum sermones ejus recipimus, in quibus vita consistit." 
(Ibid., 16, 9, vol. ii. 334.) 



350 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

which He passed to His disciples really His blood. 
No, He always intended by it the Word which nourishes 
the heart."* Thus He could rejoice in the thought of 
breaking this purely spiritual bread again in the king- 
dom of His Father. t The elements of the sacrament 
are but symbols, from which only a living faith can 
derive benefit. " The bread of the Lord only does good 
to him who partakes of it with a pure heart and upright 
conscience." It is not the fact of abstaining from this 
bread which is our ruin, but the reason of such 
abstinence, which is our persistence in evil. "That 
which is of benefit to us in the Supper is not the 
material bread, but the prayer which has been uttered 
over it ; the ordinance does good only to him who 
observes it not unworthily. This is all we have to 
say as to the typical and symbolical body of Christ." I 
" In truth, we eat the body and drink the blood of the 
Word when we hear and receive His words. That 
man has truly eaten His flesh who has apprehended 
His deepest teachings. "§ 

We have seen that Origen sought only in his 
syvStem to grasp the doctrine of Scripture as it was 
understood in the Church of his time. Thus he 
fully admits, in principle, the authority of the sacred 
book, and acknowledges no other ; he does not 

"^^ " Non enim panem ilium visibilem, quern tenebat in manibus, 
corpus suum dicebat Deus Verbum, sed Verbum in cujus mysterio 
fuerat panis ille frangendus ; nee potum ilium visibilem sanguinem 
suum dicebat, sed Verbum, in cujus mysterio potus ille fuerat 
effundendus." (" In Matt. Comment. Series," 85, vol. iii. 898.) 

f Ibid., 86, vol. iii. 897. 

t Oi'Y y] vXi] Tov dprov, aW 6 in aim^ dpr]nkvog Xoyog Icttiv hxptXCJv 
Tov arj ava%'ni}Q tov Kvpiov laOiovra avrbv, Kal ravra fiiv irtpX tov tvtcikov 
Kal <tv[jl€o\licov aufxaTOQ. (" In Matt.," xi. 14, vol. iii. 500.) 

§ " In Exod.," vii. 7, vol. ii. 155. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 351 

bow to any tradition, nor will he submit to any but 
God alone. '' What is it to me," he exclaims, " that 
a thousand men affirm a theory to be true, if it is 
condemned by the word of God ? What avails it me 
that many Churches have come to an agreement upon 
a certain doctrine, if they have all been led astray by 
heresy ? That which I desire above all things is that 
God should confirm my words, and this confirmation He 
gives them by the testimony of Holy Scripture."* These 
constitute for Origen the supreme authority. Like a 
harp of many strings, these merge all diversities in 
one grand harmony ; f they unite the gentle and the 
severe, as justice and mercy are blended in God.l 
Origen seems to believe in verbal inspiration in the 
most absolute sense. Just as every portion of the 
plant has a significance to the botanist, so each iota of 
the sacred canon has a special value in his eyes.§ He 
seeks to reconcile all divergences of detail ; [1 he does not 
hesitate to multiply the miracles of Jesus Christ, in 
order to remove trifling contradictions.^ He even goes 
so far as to suppose that the gospels have intentionally 
neglected historical accuracy in order to enrich the 
spiritual meaning.** In other passages he modifies the 
extravagance of his notion of inspiration ; he does not 

'•" " Hoc est quod quasritur, ut Dominus sermonum meorum testis 
assistat, ut ipse comprobet quse dicuntur sanctarum testimonio 
scriptarum." (" In Ezek.,'^ ii. 5, vol. iii, 364.) 

f " In Matt.," i. 2, vol. iii. 441. 

I " In Jerem. Homil.," i. 16, vol. iii. 135. 

§ Olfxai on Kal irav Oavixaaiov ypaixiia to ySYpa[x[xsvov Iv toXq Xoyloig rov 
Oeov lpya.Z,^aQai, kol ovk tOTiv iGira ev, Pj pLxa Kepaia yeypajxii.kvrj sv ry ypa6TJ, 
TjTiQ OVK epyd^erai to eavTrjg epyov. ( Ibid., 39, vol. iii. 286.) 

II " In Joann.," 6, 18, vol. iv. 134. 

IT " In Matt," 16, 12 ; "In Matt. Comment. Series," 77, vol. iii. 
732, 892. *- " In Joann.," x. 3, vol. iv 163. 



352 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

make it extend to the correctness of the language 
employed, for he points out the solecisms in the sacred 
writers.* He does not hesitate to affirm that Moses 
inserted ordinances of his own invention in the law of 
God — a theory which implies a distinction between the 
word of God and Scripture. t If, like Justin Martyr, 
he compares the sacred writers to a harp, which 
vibrates under the hand of the player, he affirms that 
the Holy Ghost never yet animated a perverse spirit, 
although it may be that wicked men, like Balaam and 
Caiphas, may have had a certain knowledge of the 
future, proceeding from an inspiration of a lower order, 
possibly even diabolical. Origen thus assigns a place 
to the moral element, although logically his theory 
of inspiration required the complete passivity of its 
subject. t He establishes degrees in inspiration, placing 
the gospels above the epistles. § The inspiration of the 
apostles is distinguished from that of later Christians 
rather in degree than in kind. *' We have not," says Ori- 
gen, "the Holy Spirit in such full measure. "jj We are 
then justified in concluding that if Origen's dictum upon 
inspiration is narrow, he often gives it expansion, and 
that in fact his views exhibit much vagueness and 
uncertainty. His theory of literal inspiration laid very 
light fetters upon him, for his conception of the three- 
fold meaning of Holy Scripture allowed him to discover 

■•' " In Joann.," iv. i, 2, vol. iv. 93. 

f " Per Moysen quidem multa locutus est Deus, aliquanta tamen" 
et Moyses propria auctoritate mandavit," ("In Numeros Homil.," 
16, 4, vol. ii. 330.) 

+ "In Joann.," 28, 13, vol. iv. 388. 

§ " In Joann.," i. 5, vol. iv. 4. 

II " Nobis non est tanta Spiritus abundantia." (" In Cantic. 
Proleg.," iii. 36.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 353 

in it almost what he would. He shows no more ex- 
actness in his conception of the canon. On the one hand, 
he allows Christian science to have a voice in its determi- 
nation. Men are to be good and faithful stewards of 
the divine treasure,* carefully guarding against any false 
coinage. On the other hand, in his curious letter to 
Julius Africanus, on the apocryphal " Book of Susan- 
nah," he inclines to the idea of a providential and 
indisputable canon, asserting that we have no right to 
diminish the treasure of the Church. t 

Origen displays all his originality and boldness of 
conception in his doctrine of the consummation of all 
things. He first treats of our condition after death. 
The soul of the good is carried into an earthly 
paradise, which, however, still belongs to our worl4, 
and forms a solitary island. This is the first place 
of purification, but is far superior \o any v{Q have 
known during our bodily existence.! The soul thefi 
enters an intermediate paradise, where it undergoes 
a second purification. Then, as it becornes freed from 
all that defiled it, it rises in the pure ether to God.§ 
The souls of the wicked are subjected in Hades to cruel 
torments, but these have also a purifying virtue. I| 
The fire which devours them is no flame of earth ; 
sin is its own chastisement, and its memory alone is 
sufficient punishment of the guilty, Apart frop^ this 
purely individual histqry of squls, the king^iona of God 
has its development upon earth. Antichrist will, in the 

* Ad/ctjuoi Tpa-mZiTai. (" In Luke Homil.," i. vol. iii. 932.) 
-j- " Letter to Africanus," 4, vol. i. 16. 

I Origen calls this first place of trial " Schola animarum." (" De 
Princip.," ii. 11, 6.) § Ibid., ii. 11,6. 

II " In Exod.," vi. 4, vol. ii. 148. 

24 



354 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

end of the ages, reunite all the forces of evil for one 
final conflict.* After this will come the judgment, 
and the end of the world inaugurated by the return 
of Christ. All the prophetic symbols of this event, 
however, are to be spiritualised. If Israel is to share 
like other nations in the glories of the future, no 
idea must be entertained of its local and material 
restoration. To compare the heavenly Jerusalem to 
a city built of stone is nothing short of blasphemy.t 
Let us put aside all these old-wives' fables invented 
by the Jews,| and picture to ourselves the return of the 
Word in its true aspect. He will return, not materially, 
but spiritually. Our world will not be preserved, but 
renovated, to receive a glorious humanity, clothed in 
ethereal bodies. § It may be said that Christ has 
truly come again in His glory, when the manifesta- 
tion of His divinity shall be so overwhelming 
that not only none of the righteous, but no sinner 
shall be able to doubt what He really is.|| Nor will 
this be the full consummation. That will only come 
when God shall be all in all, that is, when spirits 
fully discharged from their oppressive prison shall 
return to their primitive unity, — evil being abolished 
not by annihilation, but by the conversion of the 
wicked. Then creation will have realised its eternal 
idea, as that is found in the Word. *' The love of God 
by Christ will bring all creatures to the same end. 
His enemies themselves being vanquished and sub- 

* " Contra Cels.," vi. 46. 

+ " In Levit. HomiL," xii. 3, vol. ii. 249. 

X Tpaujdojg kul lovddiKoJQ. (" In Joann.," v. 26, vol. iv. 206.) 

§ " In Matt.," 12, 35, vol. iii. 556. 

II " In Matt. Comment. Series," 70, vol. iii. 889. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 355 

dued, for the end is to be as the beginning."* As we 
have observed, however, this final restoration has no 
guarantee of permanency. The Hberty of the creature 
will always make it possible for him to stake and lose 
his destiny of bliss, while still evil shall never ulti- 
mately triumph over good, the final utterance being 
ever that of victorious love.f It is, in fact, a circle 
which is never completed, or rather a sphere per- 
petually revolving through the countless ages of 
eternity. 

Such is this sublime system, — the mightiest effort 
of Christian thought in that age of fervour and free- 
dom. Our exposition has brought out both its beauties 
and its imperfections. The great Christian philosopher 
of Alexandria represents to us another Magian king 
bringing to the cradle at Bethlehem all the treasures 
of ancient culture. These treasures are not all of 
equal value ; but they are all a holy offering, and the 
purest incense rises from his adoring heart to the 
Word. With all its errors, this comprehensive 
synthesis is in its essence an act of worship. Adora- 
tion is at least the feeling which inspires it from first 
to last. 

'^ " In unum finem putamus quod bonitas Dei per Christum 
suum universam revocet creaturam subactis et subditis etiam in- 
imicis." (" De Princip.," i. 6, i.) "Semper enim similis est finis 
initiis." (" De Princip.," i. 6, 2.) See on the doctrine of final causes : 
" De Princip.," iii. 6. 



2| * 



CHAPTER V. 

CONTINUATION OF THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 
THE DISCIPLES OF ORIGEN. 

Origen's influence continued considerable in the 
Eastern Church during the whole course of the third 
century. Even at Alexandria, where he had encountered 
such sharp and unjust opposition, no spiritual authority 
could be compared with his ; and his most illustrious 
disciple, Dionysius the Great, occupied the first see 
of the Egyptian Church. This is conclusive proof that 
his teaching was not incompatible with the general 
faith of the Church before Nicgea. Those who have 
accused hirn of heresy have applied to him, by a sort of 
theological retroaction, rules which were not of his age. 
The weak and dangerous points of his doctrine were 
brought into prominence by his disciples in accordance 
with that law of the history of thought which carries 
every idea to its Ipgical consequences, and constrains 
it, in a manner, to reveal all its latent defectiveness 
and error. Qrigen had insisted upon the subordination 
of the Son to the Father more strongly than any of 
his predecessors, while still maintaining the eternal 
pre-existence of the Word ; but that pre-existence lost 
much of its value when it was admitted that creation 
also could boast of eternal duration. The Word was, 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 357 

in fine, less necessary to God than to the world, 
of which it was at once the idea and the principle, 
the prototype and the active cause. The school of 
Origen was not always able to maintain itself at the 
precise point which the master made his ultimatum. 
More than once it went beyond it, and yet it cannot 
justly be accused of Arianism. It happily remained 
faithful to its bold and generous spirituality, especially 
in relation to the interpretation of the prophecies, and 
it steadily resisted the materialism of the mille- 
narians. It also preserved the tradition of extensive 
Biblical studies, and it gave further development to 
the principles of criticism, which Origen applied with 
a timidity occasioned by his profound respect for 
Holy Scripture. 

§ I. Pierms, Gregory ThaiimaturguSf Theognosius. 

Pierhis, who had the honour to be a successor of the 
two great masters of the catechetical school of Alex- 
andria, and who, for his learning and eloquence, 
deserves to be called a second Origen, is known to 
us only by the very partial estimate of Photius, * 
The praise awarded to him by this rigid exponent 
of orthodoxy, " as having spoken piously of the 
Father and the Son," suggests that he must have 
passed over in silence the subordination of the 
Word. The Son, according to him, shares in all the 
glory of the Father, since the image cannot differ 

"=" See Dorner and Baur (works quoted) on the various histories 
of dogma, and especially their authorities. (Photius, "BibHotheca,'' 
cod. 119 ; Routh, " Reliquice," iii. p. 425, and following.) 



35o THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

from the prototype.* On the other hand, Pierius 
strangely lowered the position of the third person 
of the Trinity.! An adherent of the doctrine of the 
pre-existence of souls, he made large use of the alle- 
gorical method in the interpretation of Scripture. 

Gregory Thaumaturgus carried his affection for the 
great Alexandrine to the pitch of enthusiasm, as we 
may judge by the panegyric he passes upon him.t He 
does not always use exact and correct language in 
reference to the relation of the Son with the Father. 
He maintains that they are one in substance, and 
distinct only in thought. § The Trinity thus under- 
stood resolves itself into a mere logical thesis, and 
the difference of persons ceases to have any reality. 
He seems also to speak of the Word as created or 
produced. II Elsewhere he says that the three persons 
of the Godhead are three names ; but he has himself 
explained this rather vague expression by declaring 
that he regards these names as representing corre- 
sponding realities. •[[ In his " Panegyric," which con- 
tains the most complete expression of his thought, 
we find him using terms which vindicate him from 

* Hepi [lev Trarpug Kai v'lov evae^ivg Trpea€i.vei. (Routh, iii. 430.) 'H 
Trig etKovog rifir] Kal drifiia, Tuv TrpivTOTVirov laH nfJ-T^ ri ttoXlv dnixid. 
(Ibid.) 

f 'T7ro€e€rjicevai avro (ttv^vjio) rijg rov irarpbg Kai v'lov drrocpdaicei d6^i]g. 
(Ibid.) 

I The " Panegyric " is in vol. iv. of Huet's " Origen." That which 
remains of his writings has been collected in the " Bibliotheca 
Patrum " of Galland, vol. iii. p. 379. See also in Mai, " Spicilegium 
Rom.," vol. iii. p. 696, a fragment of a sermon by Gregory Thau- 
maturgus, " De Trinitate." 

§ Harspa Kai viov l-mvoiq, fikv tlvai dvo, vTVoardati de ev. (Basile, 
"Ep.," 210, 5.) II Uoi)]fxa, KTioixa. (Ibid., 2IO.) 

H " Nomina sunt personas ; personse significant id quod est et 
subsistit." (Mai", " Spicileg. Rom.," iii. 696.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 359 

any approach to Sabellianism. The Word is in his 
view the Lord of our souls, the firstborn of the Father, 
who has created and who governs the universe. 
He is the truth, wisdom, and power of the universal 
Father, one with Him, or rather He is in Him ; so 
that all homage to the Son is really paid to the Father, 
for He is the channel of the Father's favours and the 
highway of piety. * We find the same doctrine in 
the confession ascribed to him, which has probably 
been somewhat remodelled in the disputes of Arian- 
ism.t The Son is the impress and image of the 
Deity, the active power of universal creation. The 
doctrine of the Holy Spirit bears the trace of an in- 
terpolation of much later date, for it is brought into 
conformity with the strict orthodoxy of Nic^a. It is 
certain that Gregory Thaumaturgus admitted the 
distinction of the Divine persons, and that he only 
appeared to deny it by his too emphatic assertion of 
their substantial oneness. He had more piety than 
originality, and was altogether free from the thraldom 
of rigid formulae, which belongs to a later date. 

Theognostus, who was one of the catechists of 
Alexandria, gives us a striking instance of this loose- 
ness of expression, t He also speaks of the Word as 
a creature, § and yet he affirms that He neither came 
forth from nothing nor from any created source, but 
from the very bosom of God.|| He is the stream 
flowing from the fountain, the ray issuing from the 

* " Oratio Panegyrica," c 4. (Huet, iv, 59.) 
f Basile, "Ep.," 210. | Routh, " Reliq.," 407. 

§ Ttoi^ de Xsyojv KTi(J}.ia. (" Phot. Cod.," I06.) 

II 'Ek: tTjq tov Trarpog ovaiag e^v. (Athanasius, " Ep. de Decret. 
Niccen. Syn.," sec, 25 ; Routh, iii. 41.) 



360 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

sun. His divinity is derived, but is nevertheless com- 
plete. Theognostus has one utterance of genius which 
goes far beyond the views of his own school. " The 
Father," he says, " must ever have a Son."* This 
is an acknowledgment that the Word is, in a 
manner, the complement of the Deity in a spiritual 
sense, and that the God who is love must needs have 
an eternal object to love. With one stroke of its 
wings, Christian thought is carried far above the ab- 
stract notion of the absolute, which never gives a 
solid basis to the divinity of the Word. In other 
passages Theognostus reverts to the erroneous tenets 
of his school, regarding the Word only in His relation 
to creation. " When God formed the design of con- 
structing the universe," he says, " it was His will 
that His Son should precede it as the rule and pattern 
of the world. "t We are thus brought back to the 
Platonist theory of the ideal. 

§ II. Dionysiiis of Alexandria. 

The most illustrious representative of Origen is 
Dionysius, the great bishop of Alexandria (248). I 
Possessing a mind singularly broad and liberal, he 
never shrank frdm the boldest flight of thought or 
form of expression. He did not indeed court opposi- 

* Ahv (priai tov Trarspa tx^iv vXov. (" Phot. Cod.," Io6.) 
f Olov TLva Kavova tT]Q drjfiiovpyiag. (Greg. Nyssen., " Contra 
Eunom.," iii. 132 ; Routh, iv. 412.) 

I The fragments of the works of Dionysius of Alexandria, 
scattered throughout the writings of Athanasius and Basil, have 
been collected in Galland's " BibHotheca Patrum " (iii. 495). See 
also Routh (" Reliq.," iii. 220) ; and for Dionysius's letters, see 
" H. E.," Eusebius, book vii. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 361 

tion for its own sake, for never was man more averse 
to idle disputations ; but his courageous loyalty to 
truth made him anxious to give to the idea the most 
forcible expression possible. Unhappily we have only 
a few letters and fragments remaining from all his vast 
exegetical and dogmatic labours. The saying of his 
to which the strongest objection has been taken, 
occurs in the letter addressed by him to Ammon and 
Euphranor. In substance it is a challenge to Sabel- 
lianism. '•' The Son of God," he says, " is a creature 
born of God ; He resembles Him in nature, but in 
His essence He differs from the Father. In truth, 
the husbandman cannot be confounded with the vine, 
nor the builder of boats with his vessel. The Son, 
inasmuch as He is a creature, did not exist before His 
creation."* Dionysius' intention was to define as clearly 
as possible the distinction of the Divine persons in 
opposition to the school which regarded the Son as 
a mere manifestation, only a ray of the eternal light. 
But his words do, in fact, make a grave attack upon 
the divinity of the Word. In another passage of the 
same writing he defined the Divine life as being es- 
sentially uncreated. " God is the Being who was 
never produced ; His is the uncreated essence; nature 
then must have been created. "t The significance of 
this declaration cannot be explained away ; it formed 
too close a parallel to that which ascribed a beginning 
to the Son. In order to judge fairly of the theology 

* U.oi7]iJ.a Kai yii'trov elvai tov viqv tuv 9sov, fifjTe de <pvaet Iciov, aWd 
KBVOv Kar ovaiav elvai tov rraTpbg, luaTrep lariv 6 yiwpyoQ irpbg t))v dfi—iXov 
^ai 6 vavTrrjybg irpoQ to aKCKpog. Kat yao ojg —o'nma (op oi'K i]v ~piv yki'i]Tai. 
(Atianasius, " De Sententia Dionysii," c. 4.) 

t 'Kykvr]T6v ioTiv u Oibg teal oviia dvTov )) dysiTrjcria. (Eusebius, 
Prjepar. evang.," 7, 19.) 



362 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

of Dionysius, we must not forget that in the same 
writing he expressed the relations of the Father and 
the Son by using the old figures of the stream flowing 
from the source, the ray issuing from the central 
light, the plant springing from the root. He was 
not a Unitarian after the manner of Arius, any more 
than he was a Trinitarian of the school of Atha- 
nasius. He regarded the distinctions which issued in 
the triplicity of the persons, as produced in God 
Himself; but these distinctions were far more strongly 
marked in his view than they appeared to the orthodoxy 
of Nicaea. In any case, his language was lacking in 
logical exactness, and contained actual contradictions. 
The assertions of the bishop of Alexandria pro- 
voked a veritable scandal among the bishops of Libya. 
They addressed a letter of complaint to Dionysius, 
bishop of Rome, as the representative of one of the 
most important Churches in the world. The Roman 
bishop entered his protest against the ideas, and still 
more against the expressions, of his colleague of Alex- 
andria, dwelling especially on the unfortunate words 
which seemed to represent Christ as a creature, and 
to establish a difference between Him and the Father. 
Dionysius of Alexandria was a great friend of peace. 
He endeavoured, in an apologetic letter addressed to 
the bishop of Rome, to explain, not without modifying, 
the declarations to which the strongest objection was 
taken.* It would appear at first sight as if he accepted 
entirely the ideas of his opponent. He does, in fact, 
insist emphatically on the impossibility of separating 
the reflection from the ray, and the Son from the 
* See Routh, " Reliq.," iii. 390 and following. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 363 

Father, since the fatherhood of God must be contin- 
gent on His possession of the Son, The eternal light 
must then have always had its reflection, and the 
eternal fatherhood implies the equal eternity of the 
Son.* To speak of the Son as produced by the Father 
is simply to use the current language of the Greeks, 
who are wont to say that the word is produced by him 
who utters it. Is not this the true etymology of the 
word poet ? The poet is he who produces, and that 
which is produced is the manifestation of his thought.! 
On closer examination, however, it is clear that 
Dionysius of Alexandria still maintai ned in its strict 
sense the subordination of the Son to the Father. He 
compares their relation to that of word to thought. 
Thought is, as it were, the inward, implicit word; as it 
passes the lips it becomes outward, articulate language; 
it is the same in essence, but it has changed its mode. 
This is again the old distinction between the inward 
and the outward Word. Only with Dionysius the 
inward Word is not simply the second person of the 
Trinity in His virtual existence, as with Justin and 
Athenagoras ; He* is already God.t It is nevertheless 
certain that before his controversy with the bishop of 
Rome, Dionysius did not admit thus distinctly the 
eternity of the outward Word, and that he spoke of 
Him as having a beginning. He subsequently recon- 
sidered this, his first opinion, and he ought to have said 
so more clearly. In endeavouring to justify all his 
assertions, he involves his real views in obscurity. In 

* "OvTog dd Tov ^corog, dTiXov o)d 'iariv dd to ciTvavyaana. (Routh, iii. 

390. — Reproduction of the quotations of Athanasius.) 

f Ibid., 395. I Ibid., iii. 396, 399. 



364 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

affirming that the Son is eternally begotten of the 
Father, he means that He is eternally produced by 
Him. Dionysius summed up his doctrine in this 
formula : " We expand the indivisible Monas into the 
Trias, and we bring back the Trias undiminished to the 
Monas."* This singular formula sets aside absolutely 
the idea that the Son is of a different nature from the 
Father. Dionysius did not hesitate to declare the 
identity of their essence. He made use here again of 
figurative language. The fountain, in becoming a 
stream, changes its name, but not its nature ; so is it 
likewise with the root which becomes a plant. The 
spring is the Father, the streanl is the Son. Life 
issues from life, as the stream from its source ; the 
shining light is the radiation of that which is inex- 
tinguishable. t All these images savoUr rather of 
emanation than of generatidn by an act of the will. 
Evidently the thought of Dionysius is involved ; he 
cannot give up the subordination, which is, in his 
view, the sole guarantee of the distinction of the Divine 
Persons. But on the other hand, the rigid orthodoxy 
which has been developed by o|3position to Sabel- 
lianism lays its demands upon him. He acknowledges 
the claim, but fails to reconcile it with his previous 
bias. Hence ensues a painful conflict which he cannot 
decide, and which involves him in flagrant contradic- 
tions. These contradictions themselves, hdwever, in 
so generous a mind, are worthy of note as a sign of 
the times. There is no position more painful for the 

* Eig Ti)v rpidSa rrjv fiovdc^a irKarvvoiitv dSiaiperov, Kai rijv rpidda irdXiv 
d^dijJTOV elg ri/v novdca avyice(pa\aioviJ.t9a. (Routh, iii. 395') 

t ZoJ/) fcK Kojffg lysvuijOr) Kai axnnp 7ro-afj,t)Q drrb irrjyijg. (Ibid., 398.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 365 

religious thinker than to find himself on the boundary 
between two distinct doctrinal periods, between old 
convictions and new necessities. 

The fragments of other doctrinal writings of Diony- 
sius, which have come down to us, present little interest 
in a theological point of view. His "Treatise upon 
Nature" is a clear and sound refutation of the atheism 
of the Epicureans; he regards egoism as the source of 
our spiritual errors.* His " Commentary on Job" has 
come down to us in a very incomplete form. He speaks 
in exalted terms of the power, the wisdom, and especially 
of the eternity of God, which appears all the more to be 
admired, as placed in contrast with our changing and 
transitory life, in which the present slips away from us, 
and the future, which as yet is not, is hurrying on to the 
cessation of being.t But words like these add nothing 
to the doctrinal teaching of Dionysius. It is clear, 
from his canonical letter to Basilides, which treats of 
the celebration of the paschal fast, that he remains 
entirely faithful to the spirituality of Origen, and that 
in worship, as in morals, he attaches importance, not 
to the petty form, but to the true essence, and is there- 
fore very lenient to diversities of practice.]: In the 
writing directed by him against Nepos, he energetically 
and in the very spirit of Origen reprobates the gross 
and Jewish conceptions of the future of the Church 
cherished by the millenarians.§ This led him to give 
his whole thought to the book of the Revelation, from 

* Tw^Xwrret rig IttI ttoXv Trepl to. avT(p 7rpo(7fjKovTa did (pikavridv. 
(Routh, iv. 419.) f Ibid., 453. 

\ The letter to Basilides is given in Routh's " Reliq.," iii. 223. 

§ The whole of this discussion is found in Eusebius. (" H. E.," 
vii. 25.) 



366 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

which was the great argument of the millenarians. 
Even when we fail to agree in his conclusions, we 
cannot but admire the principles of sacred criticism 
which he enunciates. This is unquestionably the 
most novel and original portion of his theology. 
He successfully created the delicate instrument of 
criticism, avoiding all exaggeration, and carefully 
balancing the various elements of a just apprecia- 
tion. If he makes large use of internal evidence, 
he carefully guards against any arbitrary assumption 
that his interpretation of revelation must be absolutely 
the right. This appears from the following words, 
in which he addresses those who rejected the book 
of the Revelation as a whole, because it clashed 
with their preconceived notions. "I should not ven- 
ture," he says, " to reject altogether this book, which I 
see to be held in such high esteem by many of my 
brethren. I admit that it may have a meaning which 
passes my conception, and which is the hidden and 
profound sense of the things therein contained. Though 
I may fail to understand, it is possible that the words 
may conceal an idea more sublime than any which I 
can discern. I do not make my understanding the 
arbiter and measure of such a book,* but trusting the 
more to faith, I am ready to believe that it contains 
more glorious thoughts than those which I am capable 
of perceiving. I do not condemn that which I fail to 
grasp ; I rather admire that which is beyond me."t 
With this important reservation, Dionysius assigns to 
criticism its true office. He cannot reject the Revela- 

* OvK lci(f Tuvra fisrpojv kui Kf ivojv Xoyia/jtp. (Eusebius, "H. K.," 
vii. 25.) f Ibid. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 367 

tion because of the sublime character which he 
discerns in it ; and he rightly finds a confirmation of 
this direct intuition of the divine in the general feeling 
of the Church. But he is careful not to apply this 
purely mystical proof to the scientific aspect of the 
question, which rightly claims an attentive examina- 
tion. This examination he carries on with profound 
research, and his conclusion is that the Revelation is 
not by the Apostle John. He arrives at this result by 
a comparison of the undoubted writings of the apostle 
with the book of Revelation. This is a mark of 
genius, for he thus gains a solid basis for his critical 
estimate, and marks out the surest line of criticism. 
His comparison is first directed to the style. He 
observes that the Greek of the gospel and epistles is 
far more correct than that of the Revelation, which is 
overlaid with Hebraisms. He then compares the de- 
velopment of the thoughts, and shows that there is a 
striking analogy between the gospel and the epistles, 
the tendency of both being to establish the incarnation 
of the Word in opposition to docetism. The method 
of exposition is the same in these writings, while in the 
book of Revelation it is altogether different. In the 
third place, Dionysius carries the comparison into the 
domain of psychology. Neither in his gospel nor in 
his epistles does John name himself, while the writer of 
the Revelation lays great stress upon his personality. 
Lastly, it is strange that John makes no allusion in his 
letters to the revelations with which he had been 
honoured, if he was indeed the writer of the Apocalypse, 
while Paul frequently alludes to those which he had 
received. Dionysius does not ignore the external 



368 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

evidence, properly speaking, or treat with contempt the 
tradition which ascribes the authorship of the last book 
of Scripture to John. He endeavours to harmonise 
this tradition with the results of his examination, by 
ascribing the Apocalypse to John the Presbyter. The 
Church has perfect liberty assuredly to question and to 
reject this result of his researches, as indeed we our- 
selves do.* Nevertheless, his method cannot be too 
much admired; he was the initiator of sacred criticism, 
uniting respect for holy things with freedom of inquiry. 
Clement shows himself in this respect superior to 
Origen, who, as we have seen, leant towards the theory 
of a divinely given canon, the infallible result of which 
is to make Providence responsible for the errors and 
fallacies of the human mind. The example of the 
great Alexandrine is conclusive in this respect, for he 
introduced into the sacred canon the " Book of 
Susannah " and other apocryphal writings. 

§111. Julius A fricanus, Methodius, Pamphylus the Martyr. 

Dionysius of Alexandria had been preceded in the 
path of exegesis by Julius Africanus, who elicited 
Origen's letter about the ^' Bqok of Susannah." It 
is through the refutatior^ given him by his powerful 
opponent that we are made acquainted with the fine- 
ness of his critical sense. The reasons for which 
he rejects the apocryphal writing, which Origen was 
so anxious to retain, are very remarkable. They 
exhibit an admirable balancing of internal and ex- 
ternal evidence. Julius Africanus appeals first to the 

* See " Martyrs and Apologists," by the author. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 369 

historical evidence, to the Jewish canon from which 
the " Book of Susannah " was excluded. He demands 
more from history than a mere testimony; he goes back 
to the period and the circumstances to which tradition 
assigned the facts narrated ; he shows that the state of 
the Jews during the period of the captivity rendered 
impossible the wealth which is ascribed in the story 
to the family of Susannah. He then passes on to the 
study of the text itself, and points out that it contains 
plays upon words which indicate a Greek original. 
He calls in question the representation given of Daniel, 
and shows that he was not capable of passing the judg- 
ment which is attributed to him, and which is worthy 
rather of a stage player than of a great prophet. 
Lastly, rising to still higher considerations, he com- 
pares the mode of revelation in the apocryphal writing 
with that of authentic prophecy, and he concludes from 
all these considerations that the Church cannot accept 
as a divine oracle that which is simply an absurd 
fable.* Criticism — that inseparable companion of theo- 
logy, whose province is to divide the wheat from the 
chaff in the granary of God — thus began its work in the 
third century. Its earliest efforts were characterised 
by that steadfast piety and holy liberty, which enable 
the devout student to discern the divine element 
and to free it from alien admixtures. The period of 
spiritual fervour and independence which preceded the 
Council of Nicsea, was admirably adapted to the develop- 
ment of a science so necessary to the Church, but it was 
unhappily abruptly cut short after the fourth century. 

'•' See Origen's letter to Julius Africanus, in which he goes over 
the whole argument of his opponent. ("Origenis opera," i. 7.) 

25 



370 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Everything denotes the commencement of a new 
era. The further we advance in the third century, 
the more keen and vigilant do we find the susceptibility 
on points of doctrine. But even those who are most 
ponscious of this tendency are not free from the inde- 
pision of their age. 

Methodius, bishop of Patara, in Syria, who died in 311, 
vainly endeavoured to approve himself to the ortho- 
floxy of the succeeding age by assailing the writings of 
Origen. He nevertheless maintained the subordination 
pi the Word.* *' God," he says, " willed that He who 
existed before all ages in the heavens should be thus 
produced for the world ; that is to say, that what was 
before unknown should be revealed. t God alone is 
without beginning." The Word is above time, t and all 
things were made by Him ; He is, as it were, the hand 
pf God, which, after having created matter, imparted 
to it form, order, harmony.§ He has, then, a full 
participation in the divinity; but He is, nevertheless, 
in the second rank. He united Himself to human 
flesh, as the bridegroom of the Canticles to the virgin, 
who was affianced to Him.|| Methodius emphatically 
repudiated the eternity of the Word as taught by 
Prigen, the pre-existence of souls, and the idea of a 
temporary humanity, which could have no positive 

■'' Numerous fragments of the writings of Methodius are found 
i;i Photius (" Codex," 234-236 ; Epiphanius, " Hseres," 64). They 
have been collected by Galland (" Bibliotheca Patrum, iii. 663). 

f Tbv irpoovTa i'jdr] irpb ruiv alixivwv Iv toTq ovpavolg i€ov\rj9ep Kai rip 
KoafXiit yevvrjaai, o 8rj eari TrpoaOiv dyvoovfi^vov yviopicrai. (" Phot. Cod.," 
236, 311, Bekker edition.) 

X 'Aopi(TTU)g, dxpoviog. (Ibid.) The abode of the Father, dvapxog. 
(Ibid., 235, 304.) 

§ 'O vibg ri TravroSvva/jLog Kai Kparaid x^'P tov Trarpog. (Ibid., 236, 304-) 

II Ibid., 236, 311. 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 37I 

value, and would be only one stage in the process of 
development, the body being represented simply as a 
soiled garment, to be cast off as quickly as possible. 
He insisted strongly also upon the resurrection of the 
body.* The covering of skins, in which Adam was 
clothed after the Fall, does not set forth his physical 
nature, but that same nature in a state of deterioration, 
and requiring to be purified by death. " Man is not 
a soul without a body, nor a body without a soul."t 
It is strange that Methodius, possessing so much true 
wisdom, should regard asceticism as the highest ideal 
of holiness. He draws a clear distinction between 
the morality of the perfect and that of ordinary 
life. These thoughts are very fully expressed in his 
** Dialogue of the Virgins," a diffuse composition 
possessing no philosophical value. The fragments 
preserved in his " Treatise on Free Will," show that 
he was a true apostle of Christian spirituality. He 
carefully distinguishes between the trial of liberty 
and sin. The primordial law gave occasion for the 
manifestation of the free will. Methodius fell into 
error, not in discussing the very questionable views 
advanced by Origen, but in bringing against them the 
charge of heresy : this was to substitute condemnation 
for free controversy. 

The great apologist found a zealous, and even 
passionate defender in Pamphylus, who deserved the 
appellation of the Martyr. He devoted himself with 
pious zeal to making a collection in the library of 

* " Phot. Cod.," 234, 235. 

t "AvOpMTTog ovre ^vx^] X^'^P'^ (rcji-iarog, ovre (Twjttcr x'^^P'C ^^X^K. (Ibid., 
294.) 

25 * 



372 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Caesarea of the works of the master, and in particular of 
the " Hexaples," and was aided in his task by his com- 
panion, the bishop Eusebius. Cast into prison during 
the persecution under Maximus, he spent his last days 
in writing an apology of Origen's teaching, of which 
only a few pages have come down to us.* He endea- 
vours to justify the views of Origen as to the relation 
of the Son to the Father. He shows, by numerous 
quotations, that he in no way impugns the divinity 
of the Redeemer, and that he gives no place either 
to the theory of emanation or to docetism. He then 
touches on Origen's doctrine of the pre-existence of 
souls, and since he cannot deny that this is a diver- 
gence from current opinion, he invokes, on its behalf, 
the legitimate rights of Christian thought, which has 
never felt itself constrained to unanimity on such 
obscure points. ''It is notorious," he says, "that 
there are great diversities among the adherents of the 
Church on this doctrine of souls, and that some hold 
one opinion and some another. Why, then, should 
Origen be incriminated more than others for his 
peculiar views ?"t Simple diversities of opinion are 
not to be branded as heresies when they do not over- 
step the limits of the faith of the Church. Evidently 
Pamphylus belongs to the old school ; he is one of 
the last survivors of the great era of spiritual catho- 
licity. He is none the less a saint and a confessor. 
His love for liberty is united with absolute devotion to 

* This apology is found in vol. v. of Huet's " Origen," and in 
Routh. (" Reliq.," iv. 339.) 

f " Num vero cum diversitas sit apud omnes ecclesiasticos, et 
alii alia de anima sentiant, et omnes diversa ; quomodo hie magis 
quam casteri incusandus est ?" (" ApoL," c. 9 ; Routh iv. 380.) 



BOOK II. — THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. 373 

Jesus Christ. He is worthy to represent that glorious 
period of Christian Hberality and heroism, as it is just 
vanishing from the horizon of the Church. He bore 
his testimony in the dungeon at Csesarea, which 
witnessed the cruel sufferings of Origen. He was put 
to death only a few years before the inauguration of 
Christianity as the official and imperial religion. We 
deem him happier dying thus, a free martyr in a free 
age, than had he lived to see the day of infamous 
state patronage and fatal spiritual thraldom. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 

The Roman West, like the East, had its theologians ; 
it was not content to subject itself to the influence of 
the great speculative movement inaugurated at Alexan- 
dria. It was not however from the metropolis of the 
West that the impulse came, and the initiative was 
taken in the domain of religious science. The Church 
of Rome devoted its energies to its own growth and 
organisation, and to the exercise of that strong yet 
supple genius of governing, which was soon to secure 
to it the primacy. Western theology, apart from pro- 
consular Africa, has only two great names to mention. 
Irenaeus and Hippolytus are both sons of the Greco- 
Oriental Church, the language of which they speak. 
They reproduce its principal features, though in forms 
modified by the influence of different surrounding 
circumstances, and also by the peculiar genius of each. 
They both took part in questions of government and 
ecclesiastical polity, but their attitude was widely 
different. While Irenaeus urged on the development 
of external authority and the acceptance of tradition, 
Hippolytus, who laboured half a century later, was one 
of the boldest champions of the freedom of the Church, 
and adhered with such fidelity to the spirit of the 
Alexandrine school, that one of his writings has been 
ascribed to Origen himself. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 375 

§ I. The Theology of Irenceus. 

Irenseus was a theologian both by necessity and duty. 
Constrained to take up the defence of Christian beliefs 
against Gnosticism, he was under the necessity of pre- 
senting them in the form of a creed, in order to vindicate 
their true meaning in opposition to what he judged to 
be the misconstructions of his skilful adversaries. This 
apologetic and polemical design gives to his exposition 
a very striking character of simplicity and clearness, 
and prevents its lingering in pure speculation. He 
seizes the thought with a firm grasp, and defines it with 
clearness and force. He is a Latin as to method, but the 
substance of his thought is truly Greek. It is the ripened 
fruit of that long and free development which is mani- 
fested throughout the whole course of the second century, 
in Greece, in Asia Minor, and at Alexandria, and which 
finds its chief focus at Ephesus in the time of St. John. 
He remained faithful to that fruitful doctrine of the 
Word which combines in such deep and living har- 
mony the human element and the divine. Only upon 
Gallo-Roman soil, the theologian has less faith in 
freedom, and believes in the necessity of giving pro- 
tection to the truth. He does not yet seek that 
protection in the formularies imposed by great councils ; 
he is satisfied with the episcopal power as the guardian 
of tradition. But even this is a deviation from the true 
idea, and the dominant inspiration of the teaching 
becomes less free. The stream, enclosed between higher 
and closer banks, loses somewhat of its first brightness 
and force. On the other hand, the theology of Irenaeus, 
which is directed entirely against the metaphysics of 



'^']^ THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Gnosticism, establishes itself strongly upon the terra firma 
of spiritual truth ; it is not satisfied with mere words ; 
it rejects all that approaches to idle and subtle sym- 
bolism, and deals only with great realities. Hence all 
that relates to the person and work of Jesus Christ is 
treated in this theology with incontestable superiority. 
We have already seen from the plan of Irenseus' book 
against the heretics, with what logical power he refutes 
Gnosticism, pursuing it under all its disguises, tearing 
away the artificial veil of its Scripture symbols, con- 
futing it by text after text restored to its true meaning, 
and enforcing in opposition to it those great principles 
of conscience, so insolently trampled upon by fatalistic 
speculation, which treats of evil as a divine necessity. 
Let us now consider his theological system, properly so 
called. 

His theodicy is far more free from Platonist abstrac- 
tions than that of the Christian schools of the East. 
Irenaeus does not insist, like Justin and Athenagoras, 
upon the incomprehensibility of God. No one has 
raised a higher barrier between the finite and the 
infinite, between the creature and the Creator. 
" God," he says, " creates ; man is produced."* He 
deprecates all profane comparisons between the two. 
He boldly avows that human language can never 
convey the idea of the divine perfections, since it must 
divide and analyse where, in reality, there is only a 
living unity. The several attributes of God are dis- 
tinguished only by a necessity of our minds ; in truth, 
they all blend in one bright ray of purity, holiness, 

=^ " Deus quidem facit, homo autem fit." (" Hares., iv. 24.) 
(" Feuardentius " edition. Paris, 1639.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 377 

glory, intellect, and love. " If the Gnostics," he says, 
" knew the Scriptures, and had allowed themselves to 
be instructed in the truth, they would have acknow- 
ledged that God is not as men, and that His thoughts 
are different from theirs. The universal Father is 
indeed far above all human affections and passions. 
He is a simple, not a compound being, ever equal and 
unchangeable. He is all feeling, all spirit, all thought, 
all reason, all hearing, all ear, all light, and the sole 
source of all good. He is far above all attributes, and 
hence He is ineffable." * In spite of this infinite distance 
between us and God, He is not to us that silent abyss 
of the Gnostics, which precedes all life, eludes all 
perception, and is but another name for the great void.t 
God is essentially spirit, wisdom, justice, love.| If He 
is invisible to the eye of the creature. He is perceived 
by love, which is an emanation from His being, and 
constitutes the spiritual life of beings made in His 
likeness. § 

We thus escape that transcendentalism which 
reduces the Divinity to a mere creation of the mind. 
Irenseus shook off the yoke of abstract metaphysics, 
which weighed down the Platonist Fathers, and which 
exercised so fatal an influence upon the doctrine of the 
Word. His God is a living God, and not a mere idea 
or philosophical conception ; holiness and love form 
part of His essence. Love is even the very substance 
of His being, as appears from the passage in which 
the pardon of Adam is based upon the unconquerable 

* "Hseres.," ii. 16. 

f "Vacuum esse eum confitebantur." (Ibid., ii. 17.) 

I Ibid., iii. 43. 

§ " Per charitatem proximum fieri Deo." (Ibid., ii. 45.) 



378 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

magnanimity of God.* Thus, for God not to pardon, 
not to love, would be for Him to be overcome and 
suffer loss. This is equivalent to the definition of St. 
John, " God is love.'' 

Irenasus is very moderate in his divine ontology ; he 
v^ill not even attempt to lift the veil which conceals 
the essence of God from our feeble mind. Hence his 
extreme reserve in touching on those higher meta- 
physics in which Gnosticism so delighted. He believes 
in the Trinity, distinguishing clearly between the Father, 
from whom all proceeds, the Word, who has received all 
from the Father, and the Holy Spirit, who was before the 
world. t Irenseus does not attempt to offer a meta- 
physical construction of this great mystery. Some 
difficulty is found in distinguishing clearly the Word 
from the Holy Spirit, at least in relation to His offices 
and attributes. "God," says Irenaeus, "is all Spirit 
and all Word. That which He thinks. He says, and 
that which He says. He thinks."! Thus the Wisdom and 
the Word are eternal as Himself, and form part of His 
essence. We are thus led far away from the theology 
of the early Greek Fathers, who only allowed the 
outward and hypostatic production of the Word to be 
coincident with creation. According to Irenaeus, to 
assert that the word comes after the thought, is to 
fall into anthropomorphism, to descend from the 

"i" " Sed quoniam Deus invictus et magnanimus est, magnanimum 
quidem se exhibuit ad correctionem hominis." (H^res.," iii. 33.) 

f "Adest ei (Patri) semper Verbum et Sapientia, Filius, et 
Spiritus." (Ibid., iv. 37.) 

I " Deus autem totus existens mens et totus existens Logos, quod 
cogitat, hoc et loquitur ; et quod loquitur, hoc et cogitat. Cogitatio 
enim ejus Logos, et Logos mens, et omnia concludens mens, ipse 
est Pater." (Ibid., ii. 48.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 379 

region of the eternal to that of temporary succession. 
" As God is all spirit, all reason, all operating mind, 
all light, ever identical and equal with Himself, 
we may not think of Him as in any sense divided. 
The language of men being carnal, has no corres- 
pondence with the rapidity of His thought, which is 
spiritual. Thus our word is, as it were, choked within 
us; it cannot give expression all at once to our complete 
thought, but finds separate and successive utterance, 
according to the possibilities of our language."* The 
divine Word is the full revelation of the Father. He 
is His spoken, manifested, eternal reason. The Word 
is inseparable from the attributes to which the Gnostics 
had given distinct form as the divine ^ons ; He is at 
once the truth and the life.t The distinction of persons 
seems hard to reconcile with this absolute denial of any 
subordination. Irenseus was on the verge of Sabel- 
lianism ; he was only saved by his firm determination 
not to depart from tradition, and to avoid all dangerous 
speculation. He refuses to offer any explanation of the 
mode of the generation of the Son ; this is a transcen- 
dental problem with which our intellect cannot deal. 
" If it is asked in what manner did the Son proceed 
from the Father, we reply that this procreation, this 
generation, this production, this manifestation, or call 
it what you will, this unutterable generation is known 
to none, not to Valentinus, Marcion, Saturninus, or 
Basilides ; not to angels, archangels, principalities, or 
powers. It is known to the Father alone, who brought 
forth the Son, and to the Son who is born of Him. 
His generation cannot be told."]: 

'^ " Haeres.," ii. 47. f Ibid., ii. 14. 



380 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The generation of the Son, however, though so 
deep a mystery, is nevertheless a reahty, as clearly 
beyond all dispute as beyond all thought. It has 
no beginning. God, in His mysterious and holy 
union with the Word, is perfectly self-sufficing. 
Creation is an act of love ; it has no other cause 
than the free mercy of the Father. God did not 
make Adam in the beginning because He had need 
of man, but that He might have a being upon whom 
to bestow His benefits.* Before the creation of Adam 
— before, indeed, any creature was called into being 
— the Son, who dwelt in the bosom of the Father, 
glorified Him, and was glorified by the Father. The 
world was created by the Word out of nothing, and 
was not simply formed by the organisation of chaotic 
matter.t 

The moral creature was made in the image of God; 
the Divine breath, animating the physical organism, 
produced the reasonable being who is called man. 
The greatness of his nature is fully manifested in the 
second Adam. The union of the Word and the Holy 
Spirit with humanity brings to the latter all the per- 
fections which it was divinely destined to possess.]: 
Man only attains to the true consummation of his 
being when he receives the fulness of the Godhead. 

* " Non quasi indigens Deus hominis plasmavit Adam." (" Hceres.," 
iv. 28.) 

i " Omnia quae facta sunt infatigabili Verbo fecit." (Ibid., ii. 
2 ; Ibid., ii. 11.) 

I " Quemadmodum ab initio plasmationis nostr^e in Adam, ea 
quae fuit a Deo inspiratio vitas, unita plasmati animavit hominem, 
et animal rationabile ostendit : sic in fine Verbum patris et Spiritus 
Dei, adunitus antique substantias plasmationis Adae, viventem et 
perfectu7n effecit homiiiemP (Ibid., v. i.) 



i 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 381 

We shall meet with this grand thought again, as 
the very centre of the doctrine pf redemption. Hu- 
manity, even if it had not sinned, would only have 
reached its full realisation in becoming united with 
the Deity in as real a manner as by the incarnation. 

Adam was created free, that is to say, he was in- 
tended to fulfil his destiny by means of the determi- 
nation of his own will. Trial, not the Fall, was needed 
to raise him to this high position. We were made 
men that we might become gods.* God will not use 
coercion ; His designs are only love. He puts good 
in all ; but on man as on the angels He confers the 
power of choice. t Good, which is the gift of the 
Creator, is to be freely preserved ; it is only under this 
condition that it acquires a moral character. The fall 
and the punishment of the evil angels can be laid to 
their own charge alone. They did not choose to hold 
fast the good which was their appanage, and their re- 
bellion was their ruin. The kingdom of evil and of 
perdition was not founded, as the Gnostics assert, by a 
Divine decree, or by a predestination of woe. The fall 
of man is the consequence of the unbelief and diso- 
bedience of Eve, who listened to the suggestions of 
the serpent. J The first consequence of sin was the 
loss of immortality ; the fallen being is devoted to 
death, and transmits the germ of death to his descend- 
ants. § Suffering and toilsome labour are both fruits 

^^ " Nos enim imputamus et quoniam non ab initio Dii facti sumus, 
sed primo quidem homines, tunc demum Dii." (" Haeres.," iv. 73.) 

f " Bonum dat omnibus. Posuit autem in homine potestatem 
electionis, quemadmodum in angelis." (Ibid., iv, 71.) 

I Ibid., iii. 33. 

§ " Quemadmodum per priorem generationem mortem hseredita- 
vimus." (^Ibid., v. i.) 



382 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

of the first transgression. The punishment comes by 
the direct will of God, who is as faithful to His 
threatenings as to His promises. It is He who pro- 
nounced the sentence of condemnation ; nevertheless, 
the curse rests rather upon the earth, which was the 
scene of human rebellion, than upon Adam.* 

Again, no one is condemned except for his own faults. 
The race of Adam follows its father in the path of 
death because it has followed him in that of rebellion. 
Evil and good alike become effectual only as they re- 
ceive the seal and confirmation of the will.t 

The Fall has destroyed in man the glorious work of 
creation, by despoiling him of the divine and immortal 
life, which was his glory and his true nature. God 
will not be overcome ; He will not allow His original 
plan to fail. Hence He resolves to save fallen man. 
By this salvation He simply restores man to his normal 
condition, or rather He fulfils that which would have 
been man's glorious destiny had he not fallen. Such 
a restoration fallen man could never have achieved for 
himself, for he is the slave of evil and the victim of 
death. It was not possible to create anew this man 
who had been vanquished and spoiled, and thus to 
render him victorious, nor could he who was still under 
the dominion of sin be made to receive salvation.! 
On the other hand, this salvation could not be wrought 
outside the pale of humankind. " Death came by a man; 

* " Non ipsum maledixit Adam, sed terram in operibus ejus." 
(" Hseres.," iii. 35.) 

t He says of the heretics that they retain the old leaven of their 
birth : " In veteri generationis perseverantes fermento." (Ibid., v. i.) 
Present disobedience then is a confirmation of the first disobedience, 
of which we have the germ within us by birth. | Ibid., iii. 20. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 383 

the resurrection must come in like manner."* The in- 
carnation alone solves this otherwise insoluble problem. 
Here appears the superiority of the theology of Iren- 
asus, who indeed on this point has never been surpassed. 
All who went before him had made the incarnation 
nothing more than a superior mode of revelation, or 
Divine illumination, because they regarded religion 
too much in the light of an intellectual problem. Iren- 
seus does not ignore this view, which has a measure 
of importance. He also admits that the Word assumed 
human flesh in order to give us the manifestation of 
God, and to enlighten the darkness of our ignorance. 
God alone could reveal God to us. The knowledge of 
the Father is based upon the Word.t A knowledge 
of God in His glory would utterly overwhelm us ; we 
can know Him only by His love, which shines with 
brightest, mildest ray, in His Son.j; The Lamb alone 
opens the seals of the book which contains the secret 
of the Father. "Just as, in order to see the light, 
we must be in the light ; so, in order to see God, we 
must be in God."§ He who was incomprehensible 
has made Himself visible, and come down to the com- 
prehension of men. II It is in this sense that Irenasus 
says that the Father is the Son invisible, and the Son 
is the Father visible.il 

* 'ETTEidrj yap di dvOpojTrov 6 Oavdrog, Sl avBpdyirov avaaraaiQ Ik vEKpuJv. 
(" Haeres.," iii. 20.) f Ibid., iv. 15. 

I " Igitur secundum magnitudinem non est cognoscere Deum : 
impossibile est enim mensurari Patrem : secundum autem dilec- 
tionem ejus. Hasc est enim qu^ nos per Verbum ejus ducit ad 
Patrem." (Ibid., iii. 37.) 

§ "Q(T7rep OL (BXiTTOvng to (puJg, IvTog dal rov (pojTog, ovnog 01 (SXsTrovreg 
TQV Oeov iVTog yivovrai rov Oeov. (Ibid., iv. 30, 3 1.) j| Ibid. 

IT " Invisibile Pater, visibile autem Patria, Filius." (Ibid., iv. 14.) 



384 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

This object of the incarnation is not, however, the 
most important. To know God is not all. He needs 
to be appropriated and possessed ; and this implies, 
for a fallen race, a work of reparation and redemption. 
Wherein does this work consist ? Irenaeus makes the 
current use of Bible language. He speaks of a ransom, 
a propitiation. The meaning, however, which he at- 
taches to these words, has no analogy with that sub- 
sequently given to them, when theology came to seek 
an equivalent for the infinitude of sin, in the infinite 
suffering endured by the God-man. Such a conception 
is altogether alien to his thought. If the victim of 
Calvary saves us, it is by virtue of His true and real 
humanity, — a fact which would not, in the view of 
Irenaeus, compromise in any way His divinity, inas- 
much as for him, the second Adam is in fact the true 
Adam, that is, the perfect man ; for union with the 
Divine was the original destiny of the being created 
in the image of God. Born miraculously of the Virgin 
Mary, in order to escape the heritage of original sin, 
Jesus is indeed the Word Incarnate. He has veritably 
assumed our human flesh, with all its infirmities, but 
without its defilements. He was familiar with want 
and weariness ; He wept over the grave of Lazarus ; 
drops of bloody sweat stood on his brow; His side 
was pierced with the soldier's spear ; and His soul was 
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.* He was, in 

The reader may consuk with advantage the learned thesis of M. 
Hackenschmidt on this subject, entitled " Sancti Irensei De opere 
et beneficiis D. N. Jesu Christi Sententia." Strasbourg, 1869. We 
agree with this writer in his main idea. Like him, we fail to find 
in Irenseus either the idea of a fraud practised on the devil, or the 
theory of Anselm. * " Hsres.," iii. 32. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 385 

very truth, all that He seemed to be.* The choice of 
Mary as the mother of the Saviour was determined 
not by a fictitious original purity, which places her 
apart from fallen humanity. No, it was her obedience 
to the call of God which won for her this high dig- 
nity, which Irenasus describes in somewhat exagge- 
rated terms when he says, that by her faith she broke 
the fatal bond which Eve had formed by her dis- 
obedience. t 

There is no suggestion of the immaculate conception 
of the mother of the Saviour. Her submission to the 
words of the angel Gabriel is her sole title to the 
honour devolved upon her. The distinction of the two 
natures in Jesus Christ finds no place in the doctrine 
of Irenseus. Undoubtedly the human element is not 
absolutely confounded with the divine, but there is 
nothing to mark an essential difference between the 
Word Incarnate and the first Adam. The first man 
was, in truth, destined to receive and to possess the 
Deity. The Word, in the man Jesus, occupies pre- 
cisely the place which the Divine Spirit would have 
filled in primeval man had he remained true to his 
original destiny. It follows that Christ realises in the 
end of the ages the ideal which sin had destroyed 
in the beginning. He was the perfect man ; that is 
to say, man perfectly united to God.t He recapitulates 
as it were in Himself the whole human race. He is 

* " H ceres., " V. i. f Ibid,, iii. 33. 

I " Necesse fuit Dominum suum plasma requirentem, ilium ipsum 
hominem salvare qui factus fuerat secundum imaginem ejus. . . . 
Per secundum hom.inem vivificans eum hominem qui fuerat morti- 
ficatus." (" Hceres.," iii. 33.) "In fine Verbum Patris et spiritus 
Dei adunitus antiquae substantia plasmationis Ads viventem et 
perfectum fecit hominem." (Ibid., v. i.) 

26 



386 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the true head of mankind,* representing not only all 
generations, but all ages, for He redeemed childhood, 
youth, and mature age, by being Himself successively 
child, youth, and full-grown man.t This detracts 
nothing from His divinity, which was gloriously mani- 
fested in His miracles and still more in His pardons. { 
As a man He was full of compassion for our miseries, 
as God, He relieved them. Those who deny His 
divinity spoil His very humanity by robbing it of its 
brightest crown. § In truth, the Word became man 
in order that man might put on the Word and be made 
by adoption the son of God. "The Word was made 
man," says Irenaeus again, in words of singular bold- 
ness, "in order that He might accustom man to receive 
God, and God to dwell in man."|| By Christ we finally 
become gods.H 

* " Filius Dei incarnatus longam hominum expositionem in seipso 
recapitulavit, nobis salutem prasstans ut quod perdideramus in 
Adam, id est secundum imaginem et similitudinem esse Dei, hoc 
in Christo Jesu reciperemus," ("Hseres.," iii. 20.) 

f " In omnem venit aetatem." (Ibid., ii. 39.) | Ibid., v. 17. 

§ 'A7ro(Trepoiiprag rbv dvOpMTrov Trjg eig Oebv dvoSov. (Ibid., iii. 21.) 

II " Filius homo factus est, ut assuesceret hominem percipere 
Deum et assuesceret Deum habitare in homine." (Ibid,, iii. 22.) 

IT " Primo quidem homines, tunc demum Dii." (Ibid., iv. 7S-) 
I find only a single passage which seems to imply the duality of the 
two natures ; it is this : "QcrTrep yap ijv avOpcoTrog, 'iva TretpaaOfj, ovtcjq 
ical \6yog iva ^o^aaBy ' i] av')(^dZ,ovT g fikv r ov \6 y ov tv n^ Treipd^etr- 
Oai Kai (TravpovaOat, Kai d7roQvr]aKHv " avyyivojxkvov de t(^ avOpoJirqi tv rep 
viKCiv, Kai vTrofievHv, Kai %p?;fTr£i'£cr0at, Kai dviaraaOaL Kai dvaXaptdveaOai. 
(V. Int.) " Sicut enim homo erat ut tentaretur, sic et Verbum ut 
glorificaretur : requiescente quidem Verbo, ut posset tentari et 
inhonorari et crucifigi et mori ; absorpto autem homine in eo quod 
vincit et sustinet et resurgit et assumitur." (iii. 21.) This passivity 
of the Word, in suffering and death, implies a kind of dualism. 
But as we have seen, this dualism is inherent in primeval man, 
inasmuch as he was destined to participate in the divine life. In 
fact, he is only truly man by virtue of this duality, which resolves 



BOOK 11. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 387 

If we consider further not only the person but the work 
of the Redeemer, we shall understand still more clearly 
how important it was in the view of Irenseus to main- 
tain in all its reality the human nature of Jesus Christ. 
The race of Adam is the slave of sin and Satan ; it 
has brought itself under the yoke by its rebellion. Only 
by an act of obedience can it break its chains and 
triumph over its conqueror; and this redeeming act 
must be accomplished by man himself, or it can be 
of no moral value. " If," says Irenseus, " the enemy 
had not been overcome by a man, the victory would 
not have been a righteous one.* Hence the neces- 
sity of a real substitution, which should make the 
Word the representative of humanity." He was truly 
a man fighting for his own kinsmen. He fought and 
conquered ; His obedience cancelled the rebellion of the 
creature, and brought salvation by destroying sin."t 
Thus redemption is the victory of the holy obedience of 
the head of the new humanity over the power of evil 
which held us enthralled. 

In the days of His temptation Jesus encountered the 

adversary, and when He then drove him from Him, He 

cancelled the disobedience of Adam.^ But the decisive 

triumph was on the cross, because there He vanquished 

death — " the last enemy." When Jesus made Himself 

a sacrifice. He concentrated on Himself all the effects 

of the hatred of the serpent to humanity; He then 

itself into the unity of the moral person. This text cannot counter- 
vail all those we have quoted, which imply that human destiny finds 
its consummation in the Deity. 

* E ju>) dvOpojirog dviKijaev tqv avTi~a\ov rov civOpio—ov, ovk civ iiKaiiog 
kviKfjOr] 6 Ix^pog. (" H^res.," iii. 20.) 

f " Erat homo pro patribus certans, et per obedentiam inobeden- 
tiam persolvens." (Ibid., iii. 20.) t Ibid., v. 21. 

26* 



388 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

received that wound in the heel which had been pre- 
dicted, but He nevertheless crushed the head of His 
adversary, because His death was the free sacrifice of 
obedient love.* The crucifixion is not then a sort 
of damnation endured by Christ in the room of the 
sinner. God does not need sacrifices to satisfy and 
appease His anger. It was not for His own sake, but 
for man's, that He instituted sacrifices at all.t His 
anger was not kindled against Adam, but against the 
serpent, the author of man's fall.t That which He 
requires is the rescinding of the rebellion ; it is obedience 
under the conditions which sin has entailed, that is to 
say, in suffering and death ; it is the victory of a holy 
humanity over the power of evil. It is on this ground 
we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son.§ 
Now all these conditions were fulfilled by the incarna- 
tion of the Word, by that merciful substitution of the 
Son of God for mankind, or rather by that assimilation 
freely established between His love and our misery, 
which was possible by virtue of the original relationship 
by which men rightfully belong to Him.|| "In His 
infinite love He became what we are, in order to raise 
us to what He Himself is. If It is in this sense Christ 
has redeemed us by His own blood, and that He has 
given his soul for our soul, His flesh for our flesh. 

* " H^res.," iv. 7?,. 

f "Ostendens quod ipse nullius rei indiget." (Ibid., iv. 32.) 

I " Deus retorsit inimicitiam in ipsum inimicitiarum authorem 
auferens quidem suam, quae erat adversus hominem inimicitiam, 
retorquens autem illam et mittens illam in serpentem." (Ibid., iv. 
78.) 

§ "Per passionem reconciliavit nos Deo." (Ibid., iv. 78.) 

II " Sui proprii." (Ibid., v. 18.) 

IT " Factus est quod sumus, uti nos perficeret esse quod est ipse." 
(Ibid., V. " Prsfatio.") 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 389 

Since His glorious ascension He works powerfully upon 
the Church ; He communicates to it His spirit ; He 
guides and sustains it by His life. For us He suf- 
fered, for us He rose again."* 

This work of free love ought to be accepted and 
ratified by the free act of the fallen creature under the 
influence of the Holy Spirit. "The Satanic rebelHon 
established a claim upon us without right ; we wxre by 
nature the sons of God Almighty, and it was in opposi- 
tion to our true nature that we were estranged from 
Him. It was thus a righteous retribution when the 
Word of God, mighty in all things and standing steadfast 
and immovable in His righteousness, fought against 
apostasy in person, redeeming from its yoke those who 
had become bound under it. Unlike the evil power 
which has ruled over us from the beginning, laying hold 
with insatiable violence on that which does not belong 
to him, Christ uses no compulsion. No ; He employs 
persuasion, as becomes a God, who would rather convince 
than coerce those whom ?Ie seeks to win, that He may 
maintain His righteousness, while yet He suffers not 
His work to perish. t The best commentary on this 
passage is given in the beautiful words of Vinet : 

* T^p iSi(l) ovv dijiari XvrpiD'yajxkvov y)fj.ag rov Kvpiov, kol ^ovtoq rrju 
\l>vxvv VTTtp Tu>v riixeTspojv -tpvxi^v, i^cti- Ti)v crapKa kavrov avrl riov ijji^ripCJv 
(7apKS)v. (" Hasres.," V. i ; iii. 18.) 

•j- " Non cum vi, sed secundum suadelem." (Ibid,, v. i.) Baur 
(" Versoehnungslehre/' p. 31) applies this expression not to man 
but to the devil, as if Irenaeus had meant to say that God sought to 
persuade the devil himself of the righteousness of redemption. But 
this is to forget that he does not acknowledge any right of the 
devil over man (" injuste dominabatur nobis "), that there is there- 
fore no need to convince him that all his pretensions are justly 
confounded as it were by the sufferings of Christ. It is in perfect 
harmony with the system of Irenaeus to show respect for human 
freedom in the work of salvation. 



390 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

*' Grace is a divine eloquence which persuades the free 
will." " The love of Christ constrains us," as says St. 
Paul. The Divine Spirit reveals to us its grandeur and 
sweetness. Thus arises faith, which is in truth a divine 
persuasion, and by which the redeeming work wrought 
by the Divine freedom is perfected by the concurrence 
of the will of man. "Christ became the Head of the 
Church that He might draw all things to Himself."* 

Irenasus was led to treat at considerable length the 
question of the relation of the two Testaments, which 
are so constantly represented by Gnosticism as radically 
opposed to each other. The bishop of Lyons threw 
much light on this point. He recognised at once the 
unity and the progression of the divine revelations. The 
Old Testament is connected with the New as the period 
of preparation with that of fulfilment. Irenaeus did not 
fall into the error of some of his predecessors, who 
identified the two economies in almost every particular. 
As religion was for them pre-eminently a doctrine, they 
sought to discover identically the same teaching beneath 
the veils of Jewish symbolism and in the more trans- 
parent exposition of the Gospel. The position is altered, 
when, as with the bishop of Lyons, religion is regarded 
as essentially the fulfilment of a positive work of re- 
demption. The idea or the symbol is always widely 
removed from the actual fact : in this light Christianity 
preserves its specific character. Thus Irengeus, after 
having affirmed the Divine origin of the old economy, 
and declared that both Testaments proceed from the 
same God and Father, that the seed of the Word is to 
be discovered throughout the whole of Holy Scripture, 
=^ "Hseres.," iii. i8. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 39I 

boldly asserts the superiority of the Gospel.* Revela- 
tion has many steps, which rise in succession from 
earth to heaven, and by which man is led up to God.t 
The first Covenant was designed to train man under 
the rod of the schoolmaster for the exercise of liberty. 
His will was brought into subjection in the earthly 
Jerusalem, and he was thus rendered fit for freedom.]: 
The Mosaic institutions, in their peculiar and restrictive 
character, may be compared to the husk which encloses 
the still delicate grain till it is ready to cast off its 
sheath. § No declaration could be more explicit of the 
abrogation of Judaism, while yet it was recognised in 
its necessary and transitionary character. The Gospel 
abolished the Old Testament by fulfilling it, that is to 
say, by fully realising the religious idea contained in it, 
in a more or less restricted form, and eliminating all 
that gave it a sort of local and therefore limited 
application. 

The question was not simply of that tradition of the 
elders on which Jesus Christ set His ban, and which, 
like a tasteless beverage, diluted the generous wine 
of the Divine law.|| That law itself was developed, 
enlarged, spiritualised, by the Master. It was not 
repealed, abrogated, but extended. The Lord did not 
destroy ; He fulfilled all that was fundam.ental in the 
law, distinguishing thus between the moral and the 
ceremonial. II In the first place, Jesus Christ did away 

* " Hseres.," iv. 21. 

•j- " Non pauci gradus qui ducunt hominem ad Deum." (Ibid., 
iv. 22.) 

+ " Domitus habilis factus est ad libertatem." (Ibid., iv. 7.) 
§ Ibid., iv. 7. II " Aquatam traditionem." (Ibid., iv. 25.) 

II Ibid., iv. 27. 



392 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

with the few precepts which, Hke the law of divorce, 
were only concessions made to the hardness of the 
human heart.* He further abolished the rites, such 
as circumcision, which were mere figures. Irenaeus 
does not hesitate to place the Sabbath in this cate- 
gory. *'The Sabbath," he says, "taught that all 
our days ought to be consecrated to God. We have 
esteemed, says St. Paul, all days alike, as sheep for 
the slaughter; that is to say, as victims devoted to the 
altar of sacrifice, and we make our whole lives one 
continual offering without intermission. "t The rite of 
circumcision and the Sabbath have so little absolute 
religious value, that the patriarchs were justified with- 
out any knowledge of them.t Thus the scope of the 
Decalogue itself, which contains the ordinance of the 
Sabbath, is ceremonial and transitory. That which 
abides is the moral essence based upon the nature of 
man, the universal element of the law, which does not 
belong to any peculiar institution. The new law 
presents this Divine and eternal essence of the old law 
exalted by Jesus Christ. § This is the old and new 
commandment, of which love is the fulfilment. || Jesus 
Christ made the most important change in the motive 
to human obedience. Under Mosaism obedience was 
yielded under the pressure of fear, and with the terrors 
of the slave. The Gospel gives us the liberty of a 
pardoned child.^ Has not the love of God made im- 

'<" '' H^res.," iv. 29. 

f " Consecrati et ministrantes omni tempore." (Ibid., iv. 30.) 

I Ibid. 

§ " Omnia hsec non dissolutionem prseteritorum continent, sed 
plenitudinem et extensionem." (Ibid., iv. 27.) 1| Ibid., iv. 25. 

IT "Jesus Christus nobis in novitate restituit libertatem." (Ibid., 
iv. 21.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 393 

mortality again ours ? We have now free access to the 
Father, and a holy boldness in claiming our part in the 
heritage of His children. Jesus Christ has made us 
indeed His freed men. Irenseus does not apply these 
great principles to the law alone, but to prophecy also. 
Prophecy partakes of the general character of Judaism ; 
it thus prepared the way for that which superseded it. 
Particular prophecy was designed to accustom men to 
receive the Spirit of God.* God was seen by momentary 
glimpses, in order to herald in the time when the veil 
which hides Him should be removed from every eye. 
The disciple of Christ occupies a higher position than 
the prophets, for he sees directly Him whom men like 
Isaiah and Elijah saw only indirectly and afar off.f 

It is strange that after marking with so firm a line, 
and so truly in the spirit of St. Paul, the difference 
between the two Testaments, Irenaeus should have 
revived Jewish sacerdotalism, which, from his point 
of view, should have been as distinctly merged in a 
larger priesthood, as the Sabbath, circumcision, and pro- 
phecy were exchanged for their antitypes. In truth, 
if there was an institution incompatible with Christian 
liberty, and with the entire consecration of the life to 
God, it was that of the priesthood. It was intimately 
connected with the economy of coercion, of outward 
authority, of tutelage. It could not continue after 
that enfranchisement of the redeemed of Christ, so 
admirably described by the bishop of Lyons. And 
yet, none has done more than he to restore its power 
and influence. This inconsistency can be ascribed 

=^ " Prophetas pr^struebat in terra, assuescens hominem portare 
ejus Spiritum." (" Hgeres./' iv. 28.) f Ibid., iv. 37. 



394 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

only to the unworthy alarm aroused in his mind by 
Gnosticism, and the perils to which it exposed the 
Church. Let us guard ourselves, however, against 
any exaggeration. It was not the priesthood, properly 
speaking, which Irenaeus sought to restore, for he re- 
cognised no other sacrifice for sin than that of Christ. 
The Lord's Supper was not in his eyes a renewal of 
the sacrifice of Calvary offered by the hands of a priest. 
No, all was fulfilled on the cross ; peace is made 
between man and God. Jesus Christ has for ever 
abolished sacrifice in the old sense of the word, as He 
has abolished the Sabbath and ceremonial feasts.* The 
eucharistic meal is only a sacrifice of thanksgiving, 
an act of praise ; it has no expiatory virtue. Even 
this idea of sacrifice as applied to the Lord's Supper 
was not without danger. It might become so blended 
w^ith the idea of expiation, as to lead subsequently to 
the restoration of a sacrifice properly so called, which 
would be not simply the memorial, but also the daily 
repetition of the sin offering of Calvary. Irenaeus is 
yet very far from this transformation, of the holy com- 
munion, the first result of which was to introduce the 
priesthood into the Church ; for there can be no true 
priesthood without a sacrifice, "We are bound," says 
Irenaeus, "to bring our offerings to God, and to show 
ourselves grateful in all things to the Creator-God, 
offering Him the first-fruits of His creatures. The 
Church alone thus offers to God a true sacrifice."! 

* " Cum abnuisset holocaustomata, et sacrificium, et oblationes, 
et adhuc etiam et neomenias, et sabbata et ferias et reliquam uni- 
versam consequentem his observationem, intulit, suadens eis quae 
salutaria sunt." (" Haeres.," iv. 32.) 

f " Oportet enim nos oblationem Deo facere et in omnibus 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 395 

" The bread and wine of the communion do not present 
to us the real body and blood of the Lord Jesus. 
They are only created things. Jesus, giving instruc- 
tion or an example to His disciples, desired that the 
first fruits of creation should be offered to God ; not 
that He had need of them, but practically to testify our 
sincere gratitude. He took the bread, which forms 
part of creation, and having given thanks, He said : 
' This is my body.' In like manner, He declared the 
wine (also a created thing) to be His blood; and He 
thus teaches us what is the new oblation which the 
Church, under the New Covenant, presents to God, 
according to apostolic tradition, offering to Him who 
bestows on us the aliment of daily life the first- 
fruits of His gifts."* The meaning of this passage 
is clear. That which is offered to God is the first- 
fruits of created things, which, while the}^ preserve 
their true nature, serve to express our gratitude to 
the God by whom our life is sustained. "Is it not 
evident," we read elsewhere, " that the eucharistic 
bread cannot be called the body of Christ, and that the 
cup cannot be called His blood, except it be acknow- 
ledged that the Son of God truly created the world, 
and that it is His Word which has made the tree to 
bear fruit, the stream to flow, the corn to grow, and 
gratos inveniri fabricatori Deo, primitias earum quse sunt in ejus 
creatura oflerentes : in hanc oblationem Ecclesia sola puram offert 
fabricatori, offerens ei cum gratiarum actione ex creatura ejus." 
(" Hseres.," iv. 35.) Upoacpspojj.iv ce avrt^ ra 'iSia, as we read in the 
" Sacred Parallels" of John Damascena. 

'•' " Eum qui est ex creatura panis accepit. Calicem similiter 
qui est ex ea creatura suum sanguinem confessus est, et Novi Testa- 
ment! novam docuit oblationem, quam Ecclesia ab apostolis ac- 
cipiens in universo mundo offert Deo ei qui alimenta nobis prsstat, 
primitias suorum munerum."' (Ibid., iv. 32. j 



39^ THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the harvest to ripen ? How can our adversaries assert 
that the flesh, nourished by the body and blood of the 
Lord, is only the prey of corruption ? We offer to God 
that which belongs to Him, maintaining the relation 
and the oneness of the flesh and spirit. Just as, in fact, 
the bread which comes from the earth, so soon as the 
divine invocation is pronounced over it, is no longer 
ordinary bread, but becomes the eucharist, at once 
earthly and heavenly food, so our bodies which receive 
the eucharist are no longer corruptible, but possess the 
hope of the resurrection. We offer to God that which 
He does not need, but it is with a view to acknowledge 
His gifts, and thus to sanctify created things."* The 
mystical tone of the language of Irenseus does not 
conceal his true thought. Seeking to oppose the 
doctrine of the Gnostics, who condemned the corporeal 
creation, and regarded it as altogether evil, he exalts 
creation as the very work of the Word. It is His by 
peculiar right ; it is, as it were. His own body and 
blood. The sacrifice of the New Covenant vindicates 
this high dignity of created things, for it consecrates to 
God by prayer the first-fruits of this same creation. 
These first-fruits are not materially transformed, they 
are simply raised to a new and celestial dignity by the 
divine invocation. Thus the eucharist in itself ennobles 
the material creation, and it may be concluded that our 
body, which belongs to this creation, is not in itself an 
element devoted to corruption. The eucharistic meal 

* " Quomodo autem constabit eis, cum panem in quo gratise actae 
sunt, corpus esse Domini sui et calicem sanguinis ejus, si non ipsum 
fabricatoris mundi Filium dicant, id est Verbum ejus, . . . Offerimus 
ei non quasi indigenti sed gratias agentes donationi ejus et sanctifi- 
cantes creaturam." (" Heeres.," iv. 34.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 39/ 

thus gives us a guarantee of our resurrection. The 
same thought is found further developed in another 
passage, which must be interpreted by the light of the 
texts already quoted. The gist of the argument is still 
the refutation of docetism. " They are mistaken, who 
despise the whole of creation, and who deny the 
resurrection of the body. Jesus would not, were this 
so, have redeemed us on the cross by His blood ; the 
eucharistic cup would not then be the communication 
of His blood, nor the broken bread the communication 
of His body.* Being members of His body, we are 
nourished by the natural elements. These elements He 
supplies by making His sun to rise, and giving rain as 
it pleases Him. He has declared that this wine of the 
cup, which is a part of creation, is His blood, by which 
ours is nourished ; and that this bread (part also of 
creation) is His body, by which ours is fed.f When 
the cup — in which wine and water are mixed — and the 
broken bread have received the divine blessing, we 
have in them the eucharist of the blood and body of 
Christ, which strengthens and sustains the substance 
of our body. Now, after this, can any assert that the 
flesh thus fed by the body and blood of Christ cannot 
receive the gift of God, which is eternal life ? Just as 
the stock of the vine, planted in the earth, bears fruit 
in its season, and as the grain of wheat falls to the 
ground, dies, and then under the multiplying action of 

=^ " Sic neque calix Eucharistise communicatio sanguinis ejus est.'' 
(" Haeres.," v. 2.) These words are thus rendered in the translation 
of the Fathers in the Genoude collection : " Ainsi ilne serait pas 
vrai que le vin fut change en son sang dans I'Eucharistie " (vol. 
iii. p. 479). It is to be used freely with the passages. 

t " Eum calicem qui est creatura, suum sanguinem qui effusus 
est, ex quo auget nostrum sanguinem." (Ibid., v. 2.) 



398 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the Spirit of God, which makes all things for the good 
of man, brings forth abundantly ; just as this bread 
and this wine become, under the invocation of the 
Word of God, the eucharist, that is to say, the body 
and blood of Christ ; so our bodies, when they shall 
have been broken, buried, and surrendered to dissolu- 
tion in the grave, shall be raised again by the Word, in 
due time, to the glory of God the Father."* 

In short, the material world is the creation of the 
Word ; the bread and the wine which sustain our life 
come from Him ; in offering to the Word the first-fruits 
of this creation, we are offering Him of His own. Con- 
secrated by the divine Word, these elements are, as it 
were. His body and blood, but they undergo no change 
of substance. They nourish us just as common food 
nourishes, and they are designed to express our grati- 
tude for the divine bounty, which enables us to find the 
support and sustenance of our life in the natural crea- 
tion. We honour the work of the Word in natural 
creation, which is indeed in a manner an incarnation of 
the Word. If Irensus is open to any reproach, it is 
that of having divested the holy communion too much 
of the idea of the sacrifice of Christ, and of having 
represented it rather as the memorial of creation than 
of redemption, in his great anxiety to confute Gnostic 
docetism. We do not deny that some of his expres- 
sions are susceptible of various interpretations, and 
that, pressed to the letter, they will lend some sup- 
port to the theory of sacramental realism; but the 
general meaning of these various passages, when they 
* " Hseres.," v. 2. The Eucharist is here presented not as the 
active principle of the resurrection, but as its pledge, since it is the 
Word who at the last day will restore our bodies to life. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 399 

are collated, is certainly that which we have given. In 
any case, whatever be the interpretation finally ac- 
cepted, it is evident that the eucharistic feast presents, 
in the view of the bishop of Lyons, no analogy what- 
ever with the renewal of the redemptive sacrifice.* 

It is not sacrifice, properly speaking, it is spiritual 
authority which Irenaeus is anxious to restore in order 
to raise a barrier against the intrusion of heresy. The 
Church is represented not as a society of believers, but 
as a hierarchy by divine right, though not possessing 
as yet any centre or fixed organisation. Iren^us says 
nothing as to the mode of admitting fresh converts ; he 
offers no theory of baptism. It has been asserted that 
he accepted infant baptism, on the ground of the 
passage already quoted, in which he declares that 
Christ, by stooping Himself to the cradle, sanctified 
childhood. But this is a purely gratuitous supposition. 

* In opposition to our interpretation, these words are adduced : 
" Verbum quod offertur Deo." (" Hseres.," iv. 33.) But this is a 
false reading. It should be : ^'' Per quod offertur." This is the 
only reading that will agree with the doctrine of I renins. Neander, 
in his "History of Doctrines" (vol. i. pp. 250-253), yields, as we 
think, too much to the partisans of the Real Presence in his inter- 
pretation of the texts which we have quoted. He has not taken 
sufficient account of the general idea of creation given by Irenseus 
as being the work and manifestation of the Word. The Eucharist 
is designed to bring into full relief that divine aspect of the material 
creation which was so gloriously manifested in the incarnation. 
The operation of grace connects the material element with the 
spiritual agent by which it was produced. Our interpretation is 
confirmed by the fragment of Irenseus, discovered by Pfaff. We 
there read in so many words : 'H Trpoa^opd t7]q EvxapiaTiag ovk inri 
aapKiKTj aXka 7rvi.vp.aTiKr]. (The offering of the Eucharist is not 
carnal, but spiritual.) If the bread and the wine of the Lord's 
Supper are compared to the body and blood of Christ, they are 
none the less designated the first fruits of the creation, and are 
called, 'AvTirvTva. 



400 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

He is sufBciently explicit, however, on the government 
of the Church. The apostles were not simply the 
chosen witnesses of Christ, the accredited representa- 
tives of the primitive Christianity, which is to be the 
perpetually abiding law of Christian thought and 
practice ; they possessed also an organised and trans- 
missible power. They were the heads of a permanent 
hierarchy, and are therefore invested with the personal 
gift of infallibility. ''The Lord gave to His apostles the 
power of the Gospel ; through them the truth is made 
known to us, even the doctrine of the Father and the 
Son, for the Lord said to them : ' He that heareth you 
heareth Me.'* Disciples of the truth, they are pre- 
served from all error.t The Spirit has made them 
perfect.! Thus their doctrine is the rule of faith trans- 
mitted to the Church. § They have refused all con- 
cession, like the doctor who will yield nothing to the 
evil he seeks to cure."|| 

The doctrine of the apostles is contained first of all 
in their writings. Irenasus highly exalts the authority 
of the Gospels, which he compares in a famous text to 
the four cherubim, the four living ones of the Revela- 
tion. H But oral tradition is of no less importance than 
Holy Scripture. The heretics are no less culpable for 
rejecting the secondary than the primary authority.** 
The elders who gathered around St. John at Ephesus 

* " Apostolis Dominus dedit potestatem Evangelii." (" Hceres.," 
iii. " Prsefatio.") 

f " Extra omne mendacium sunt." (Ibid., iii. 5.) 

I Ibid., iii. 12. 

§ "Deus . . . quern apostoli tradunt, quern Ecclesia credidit." 
(Ibid., ii. 55.) II Ibid., iii. 5. IT Ibid., iii. 11. 

'^* " Traditionem, quae est ab apostolis, quse per successiones 
presbyterorum in Ecclesia custoditur.'^ (Ibid., iii. 2.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 4OI 

are placed on the same level as the sacred writers. 
Polycarp and the men who heard the apostles are 
appealed to as decisive authorities.* Oral tradition 
may even take the place of holy Scripture, and entire 
nations are satisfied with it.f Thus is constituted the 
rule of faith, the echo of that apostolic tradition, 
written or oral, which was communicated to the 
Churches founded by the apostles. J These Churches 
are naturally the great depositaries of this tradition. If 
a discussion is raised on some minor question, reference 
must be made to the most ancient Churches, those 
which were honoured with the presence of the apostles, 
and from them a positive and decisive answer will be 
received on the point in dispute. Iren^us makes no 
distinction among the Churches of apostolic origin. If 
he refers chiefly to the Church of Rome, it is because 
that is the nearest to him, and time would fail him 
to produce the titles to confidence of other Churches 
of the same order. " It would be too long a pro- 
cess," he says, ''to trace the succession of all the 
other Churches. "§ He confines himself to that which 
is most accessible, and the best known and most illus- 
trious because of its antiquity, and as having been 
founded by the two apostles whose equality he pro- 
claims. "Peter," he says, "was the apostle of the 
same God as Paul."|| We shall see in the discussions 

=^ "Haeres.," iii, 3. 

f " Multae gentes barbarorum quorum qui in Christum credunt 
sine chartis et atramento scriptam habentes per Spiritum in cordi- 
bus suis salutem." (Ibid., iii. 4.) 

I " Ecclesia autem omnis per universum orbem, banc accepit ab 
apostolis traditionem." (Ibid., ii. 9 ; comp. iii. 4.) 

§ " Sed quoniam valde longum est omnium Ecclesiarum enu- 
merare successiones." (Ibid., iii. 3.) || Ibid., iii. 3. 

27 



402 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

as to the right date of the Easter festival that Irenasus 
distinctly denies the primacy of the bishop of Rome. 

It is unquestionable, however, that he contributed 
largely by his labours to the triumph of the hierarchy. 
The episcopate is recognised by him as the true apos- 
tolical succession in the Church. It has the same 
rights and the same authority as the apostolate. Irenaeus 
is also the jealous and watchful guardian of tradition, 
which he traces back as a direct institution to the 
apostles themselves.* The episcopate is not regarded 
by Irenagus as the representative and democratic insti- 
tution which it was in primitive times, when the office 
of bishop was not to be distinguished from that of elder. 
The same spirit which animated the apostolate breathes 
in the episcopate, which is but a continuation of it. Nay, 
more ; the bishops are made the depositaries of the 
truth, in order to preserve intact the trust of tradition. 
*' We must obey," said Irenaeus, *'the elders who were 
followers of the apostles, and whose is the episcopal 
succession. They have received the supernatural gift 
of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father."! 
We must look doubtfully on those who have deviated 
from the main line of the succession, wherever they 
may be gathered together. We must treat them as 
heretics, holding evil doctrines ; they are schismatics, 
self-exalted and self-satisfied, or they are hypocrites. 
All are alike estranged from the truth. The heretics 

* T^ ai'Ty ra^fi Koi ry dvry diOaxy Vre cltto tuiv airoaroXdtiV Iv nj 
'E/c/cXr/cria Trapddoffig, kui to Trjg dXtjOdag Krjpvyixa KaTdvTr]Ktv elg rj^iag" 
(" Hseres.," iii. 3.) 

f " Quapropter eis qui in Ecclesia sunt presbyteris obaudire 
oportet, his qui successionem habent ab apostolis, qui cum episco- 
patus successione charisma veritatis certum, secundum placitum 
Patris acceperunt." (Ibid., iv. 43.) 



BOOK II.— THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 403 

who bring strange fire, that is to say, strange doctrines 
to the altar of God, shall be consumed like Nadab and 
Abihu by fire from heaven.* To be outside the truth 
is to be outside the Church. t Holy Scripture does not 
suffice as the sole authority ; it is only safely interpreted 
under the control of the episcopate. J The fear of heresy 
had urged on Irenaeus to these extreme consequences 
of the doctrine of authority. The day of their triumph 
was not yet come, but he had sown seed which would 
germinate only too quickly, and which at this very time 
found in Rome itself a congenial soil and atmosphere. 

Upon the inspiration of Holy Scripture Irenseus had 
no very original views. He appears to have accepted 
in all its rigour the theory of the literal inspiration of 
both the Old and New Testament. He believes in the 
famous legend of the Seventy translating the Bible, 
each man apart, and all arriving at the same version. 
He even asserts that, by virtue of the prophetic inspira- 
tion, the seventy translators of Alexandria had discovered 
the very text of the prophets. § His noble theory of the 
expansion of particular inspiration since the coming of 
Christ, implies a freer mode of inspiration under the 
New Covenant. Irenseus does not preserve in his doctrine 
of the last days the same spirituality which we have 
admired in his conception of Judaism. He there exhibits 
prejudices worthy only of rabbinism, and interprets 
prophecy in the most material sense. Antichrist is to 
come in the end of the ages, which will coincide with 
the fall of the Roman Empire, for the mysterious name 
of the Beast is Latiniis. In him will be concentrated 

* " Hceres.," iv. 43. 

f "Extra veritatem, id est extra Ecclesiam." (Ibid., iv. 62.) 

I Ibid., iv. 43. § Ibid., iii. 25, 

27 * 



404 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the evil of all past generations. After dwelling in 
Jerusalem three years and five days, he will be van- 
quished.* The millennium will commence after the 
resurrection of the just ; it will be a purely earthly 
glory and felicity, after the sort depicted in such brilliant 
colours in the Jewish apocalypses. Irenaeus does not 
hesitate to adopt the absurdities of Papias. " The vines 
will produce ten thousand branches, every branch ten 
thousand shoots, every shoot ten thousand clusters, 
every cluster ten thousand grapes, and every cluster, 
when pressed, will yield twenty-five measures of wine. 
And when a saint shall gather a grape, another grape 
shall say, ' I am yet more beautiful than that thou hast 
gathered ; take me and bless the Lord.' " It shall be 
the same with the wheat. f The resurrection will be 
followed by the final judgment, the result of which will 
be the eternal punishment of the wicked, or their final 
separation from God.t 

Such is the theological system of Irenseus, a blending 
of sublime spirituality and Jewish superstition, which, 
while it contained the fullest and grandest statement of 
the doctrine of the Word, as held by the great teachers 
of the East, contributed more than any other system to 
precipitate the West down the incline of external 
authority and of the hierarchy. His determined oppo- 
sition to Gnosticism was the real source both of his 
apocalyptic chimeras and of his hierarchical tendency. 

* " H^res.," V. 29, 30. f Ibid., v. 33. | Ibid., v. 27. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 405 

§ II. St. Hippolyttis.^ Dionysius of Rome, 

St. Hippolytus, the famous bishop of the Port of 
Rome, who took a very important part in the ecclesias- 
tical and religious controversies of his age, and who has 
bequeathed to us such invaluable documents on the 
heresies of the second century, may be regarded as a 
disciple of Irenasus. He united very extensive philo- 
sophical learning with the bias of an ardent polemic. 
He is, however, far inferior as a theologian to the bishop 
of L3'ons. He does not treat the grave problems con- 
nected with the person of Christ with the same breadth 
and elevation as his predecessor. He rather follows the 
track of oriental speculation than that of the school of 
Lyons, which had succeeded better than any other in 

* We have already given a sketch of the Hfe of Hippolytus, and 
estabhshed the authenticity of the " Philosophoumena." (See 
" Early Years of Christianity " and " Martyrs and Apologists.") 
His other writings are contained for the most part in the collection 
published by Fabricius. (" Sancti Hippolyti Opera," 2 vols, in fol., 
Hamburg, 17 16.) See also Galland, " Bibliotheca Patrum," vol. ii. 
These writings consist mainly of fragments of commentaries on 
the Holy Scriptures, the treatise " De Antechristo," the book Ilepi 
Tov iravTOQ ovalaq, which is mentioned on the statue of the saint in 
the museum " Pio Clementi," at Rome ; the "Homily on Noetus ;" 
the treatise against " Bero ;" the " Homily on the Theophany or the 
Baptism of Jesus." The fragments of the " Little Labyrinth " are 
found in Eusebius, " H. E.," vi. 20-28. Routh accompanies them 
with notes in his " Reliquise sacrse," vol. ii. 126-163. He erroneously 
ascribes them to Caius ; in fact, the author of the treatise Tlepl tov 
TravTOQ ovdlag, says that he wrote the " Little Labyrinth." Now we 
know from the statue of Hippol>i;us that he wrote a treatise on the 
" Essence of the Universe." We find a precious fragment of the 
commentary of Hippolytus on the " Proverbs " in vol. vii. of the 
" Nova Bibhotheca Patnim " of Angelo Mai" (pp. 71-77). See the 
important dissertation in Bunsen on the writings of Hippolytus 
(" Hippolytus," vol. i. 5th letter), and the passage referring to him 
in Dorner's great work (pp. 605-630). 



406 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

dissipating the clouds of abstract metaphysics, and 
bringing into clearer light the harmony of the human and 
the divine in Jesus. Hippolytus is primarily an orator. 
His exposition always assumes the somewhat diffuse 
form of the homily ; he delights in abrupt turns. He 
uses these with admirable effect, but a little to the detri- 
ment of the precision of his thought. On one point he 
entirely eclipses Irenseus; his conception of the Church 
bears the impress of the noble liberalism of the early 
age of the Church ; his one aim is to arrest the fatal re- 
trogression to Jewish sacerdotalism and theocratic rule. 
Hippolytus' idea of God is as abstract as that of 
Justin and Athenagoras. He regards Him rather as 
the eternal reason than as eternal love. " God," he 
says, " is primarily one and alone. He produced all 
beings, and He governs all ; no being can be traced 
back so far as His.* All was in Him, and He was 
all." f Hippolytus, starting from this almost Neo-Pla- 
tonist conception of God, has no solid basis on which 
to rest the pre-existence of the Word. The Son is not 
necessary to the fulness of the Divine life, as in the 
systems in which Divine love requires an object ex- 
ternal to the world — an eternal object. The Word is 
not confounded with the world, since it exists ante- 
cedently to it, and proceeds not from nothing, but from 
the Father Himself, of whom He is the perfect expres- 
sion, the living utterance ; but He does not possess a 
distinct existence from all eternity. He exists first as 
the creative thought, then He becomes the instrument 
of creation, the sovereign agent of the Divine will, to 

* Qebg elg 6 TrpioTog /cat [xovog /cat airavTOJV Troirjrrjg Kal Kvpiog, avyxpdivov 
taxtv oUkv. (" Phil.," x. 32.) 

f Ilavra Koi yv kv ahrc^ Kal i'/v to ttclv. (" Contra Noet.," lO.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 407 

call into life contingent beings. He is thus a person, 
not simply an idea, as in all the forms of Platonism. 
The God who dwelt alone, willed to create the world. 
He thought.* By this thought He begat the Word, 
not simply as an utterance or sound, but as the 
inner thought of the universe. t The Word alone was 
produced by the Being, for the Father was the Being ; 
the Word came forth from Him to produce all existence. 
He possessed in Himself all divine ideas. Thus He 
was able, when the Father commanded that the world 
should be created, to produce all beings according to 
the good pleasure of God.]: The Word shares in the 
impassibility, the absolute immobility of the Father, 
who fills in the theology of Hippolytus the place of the 
prime mooter in that of Aristotle. The divine life 
cannot be limited ; it is always identical with itself, 
infinite and absolute. § The bishop of the Port of 
Rome confounds together immutability of essence 
and of action, and does not comprehend that the 
moral nature maintains its unity unimpaired amidst 
the most diversified modes of operation, according to 
the diversity of the relations in which it is placed. We 
shall find that this abstract conception of the divinity 
largely influenced his idea of the incarnation. 

The Word is distinguished from the world, inasmuch 
as He came forth from the Father, while the world 

* 'O KocFuov lvvo)]9ei£. (" Contra Noet./' lo.) 

■f Aoyov Trpu'Tov t-.vvorjOeiQ diroytwa, ov Xoyov, wg ^ovi]V, aXX' IvhaBtrov 
Tov iravTOQ Xoyianov. (" Phil.," x. 33.) 

X '^X^'' *^ ^avTip Tag Iv T(p Trarpl 7rpotvvoi]Qdaac, ISkag, '69ev KeXevovTog 
Trarpog yivtaOai icoupov to Kara, kv Aoyog cnrereXelro dpsaKiov Qi<p. (Ibid., 

X. 33-) 

§ To yap ciTTSipov Kar ovSeva rpoitov i] Xoyov iTridex^fraL Kivijmv. 
(" Contra Bero," Fabricius's edition, vol. i. p. 225.) 



408 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

came from nothing. Thus He may with reason call 
Himself God, being of the essence of God.* Not that 
there are therefore two Gods ; no : the Word is like the 
light which springs from light, as the stream from the 
source, the ray from the sun. There is but one power, 
which is that of the All in all. Now the Father is the 
All in all, from whom proceeds the power of the Word. 
All things were made by the Word, but He alone 
proceeds from the Father. " There are not, then, 
two Gods, but one God in two persons. The third 
economy is the grace of the Holy Spirit. "t The Father 
commands, the Son obeys, the Holy Spirit enlightens. 
The Father is over all, the Son acts by all, the Holy 
Spirit is in all. The Holy Spirit constitutes a third 
divine person, of whose nature and mode of operation 
Hippolytus gives no explanation. 

The constituent and primordial elements of finite 
existence are fire, air, water, earth.]: The angels are 
formed of the two first. Man, who is the king of the 
terrestrial creation, is composed of the four elements. 
Thus he shares in the condition of all that is multiple 
and divisible ; he is by nature subject to death. The 
Divine and immortal life does not belong to him by 
natural right ; it can only become his as a new gift. 
God might have made him God directly, communicat- 
ing to him that derived divinity which is not to be 
confounded with his absolute, infinite, immutable 
being ; but He did not so will it. The divinity is to be 

* TovTOV 6 \6yoQ fiovog t? avTOv' did /cat Oeoq, ovffia vTvapxttiV Otov, 'O 
Si. Ko^ixog I? ovdevog' dib ov Beoq. (" Phil.,^^ x. 33.) 

f Auo fitv ovK tp(f GeovQ, dXX' ij era, Trpoaujira Se dvo, oiKovofiiav Se 
Tpirrjv, rr)v x^P'^ tov ayiov TrvtvuaroQ. (" Contra Noet," I4.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 409 

the crown of his being, a new gift.* Doubtless man 
has enjoyed ever since his creation a certain illumina- 
tion from the Word ; he bears the image of the Word,t 
but this resemblance is more or less external. The 
divine element in man is not that light which, accord- 
ing to St. John, lightens every man that cometh into 
the world, and which constitutes, in fact, his higher 
life. It is not that sacred germ of which Justin speaks, 
that divine seed which belongs to human nature. Man 
is naturally destitute of the Word, and the Word 
becomes his only by special gift of grace. 

Adam, born to liberty and entrusted with the free 
control of his destiny, falls by his own fault. Man, as 
created by God, was a free being, endowed with liberty 
of choice. This freedom became the cause of evil, which 
is only a contingency ; for it would have had no ex- 
istence had man not sinned. It had no existence in 
the beginning, it supervened, as it were, accidentally.! 
Hippolytus is very moderate in his views of the nature 
and consequences of original sin. He admits the fall of 
humanity as a fact, but does not define its scope or 
character. 

The work of salvation is referred directly to the Word. 
It is He who accomplishes it from first to last ; the 
two Covenants form but one continuous and progressive 
revelation. He first gave the law for man's correc- 
tion and instruction ; then prophecy — which illuminates 
the past no less than the future. § *' The prophets have 

* 'AvOpdJTTOv 6s\(x)v, dv9p(x)7r6v (re kTvoir]aiv' el de OsXeig kul 9ebg yevscrOai, 
i/TroKouf Tip 7re'7tod]KOTi. (" Phil.," x. 33.) f Ibid. 

X '0 Ik yevofxevog dvOpojirog Z,ipov avrt^ovcriov yv . . . kv np OkXuv Kol 
vofxi^siv Ti KUKov TO KoKov opofid^eTai, ovK ov drr' dpxrjg dX\' eniyivofitvov. 

(Ibid., X. 33.) § Ibid. 



410 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

become, as it were, our eyes, to hold forth to the eye of 
faith the mysteries of the Word ; it is from Him their 
wisdom was derived."* In all this moral education 
of the human race, the Word has never ceased to 
respect the liberty of man, in His efforts to bring him 
to obedience. t He came the first time by the lawgivers, 
the second time by the prophets, the third time by the 
Gospel, revealing Himself without a veil.t The Father 
sent Him in person, that instead of speaking any longer 
through symbols more or less obscure. He might 
render Himself in a manner visible, and thus gain the 
recognition of the world. § The Word, in becoming 
incarnate, took upon Himself true human nature, 
became of the seed of Adam, but without laying aside 
the impassibility of the Divine nature. This was 
neither surrendered nor destroyed ; it remained what it 
was, not being susceptible of any modification. || The 
human flesh did not become Divine, neither did the 
Divine clothe itself in the passivity of flesh. IF The 
distinction of the two natures remained intact and 
absolute in the unity of the person. This is a mystery 
which cannot be explained: let us be content with 
recognising that in the incarnate Word the Divinity is 
the active, the flesh the passive, principle. The Word 

* TIporpiiTai 600a\/xoi r'uxiov lykvovTO 7rpoopo)vrsQ dia Tricrrewc: rd rov 
Xoyov fivffTripia. (" De Antechristo." Fabricius's edition, i. 5.) 

t Ov (3ia dW eir' l\i.vQipiav. (" Phil.," X. 33.) 

X 'Eavrov (pavsp^g lirideiKvyg. (Saint Hippolytus, " Comment, in 
Prov." Angelo Ma'i, "Nova Bibl. Patrum," vol, vii. 75.) 

§ AiJTO\pel (paveptoOrjvai. (" Phil.," X. 33.) 

II To yap Oetov, ojq rjv irpb (rapKioaeiog, ecrri Koi iifrd adpKioaiv Kara (pvcxLV 
a-KPipov, daxiTov, aTtaQeQ. (" Contra Bero," p. 227.) 

% " Neque caro per se sine Verbo subsistere poterat, quia in 
Verbo habebat rt'iv cmTaaiv, id est in Verbo subsistebat." (" Contra 
Noet," chap. 15.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL, 4II 

communicated to the flesh the force of the Divinity, 
which was not abated by His humiHation.* Just as 
thought makes use for its expression of the physical 
organs of language, without having any analogy with 
them, and by a process to us inexplicable, so the Word, 
in the incarnation, employs the true human flesh which 
He has assumed.! His body is in a manner His 
vesture.! In His incarnation He passed through the 
womb of the Virgin. § '^The Divinity of Jesus accom- 
plishes those Divine acts of which His flesh is by nature 
incapable, and His humanity performs the human acts 
which have in their essence nothing divine." || It would 
not be possible to give expression to more positive 
dualism than this, in the account of the incarnation 
of the Word. Nevertheless Hippolytus insists strongly 
upon the reality of His humanity. The Redeemer 
chose to pass through all the stages of human life, 
according to the beautiful thought of Irenaeus, in order 
to be the model of every age. He took upon Him in 
the womb of the Virgin a human organism as well as 
a reasonable soul ;1T and He thus made manifest in the 
world the perfect man.** Though God, He was subject 
to the conditions of human life. He thirsted, was an 
hungered, and weary ; He was not only acquainted with 

* TrJQ iSiag Qi6ti]toq ijXTtoir](TaQ ry (rapKl ttjv kvkpyiiav, ov 7repLypa(pofisvr]v 
avry Sid Trjv KsvMmv. (" Contra Bero," p. 226.) 

f Ibid., pp. 227, 228. 

X "Evdvua i'xwi/ TO dv9po)7nvov awfia. (" Pra;dicatio in Theophania," 
p. 262.) 

§ "O Otog \6yog aapK(t)9dg ^iktiq KoXwg fji,{]Tpav TrapOsvov. (" Comm. in 
Prov." Mai, " Nova Bibl. Patrum," vii. 75.) 

II OfOTtjTi fikv TO. Oeid, Cid Ttjg avTov Travayiag (XapKog Kai to. dvOpojir'tva 
dvOpioTTornTL. (" Contra Bero," p. 230.) 

IT " Contra Noet," 18 ; Mai, " Nova Bibl. Patrum/' 74. 

** "Of Tov Ttkeiov dvOpioTTov dvavEwaag iv KoaiKfj. (Ibid.) 



412 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

fear, but with tears and trembling ; He prayed that the 
cup He had come into the world to drink, might pass 
from Him, and in the anguish of His soul the sweat 
became blood upon His brow. He who knew what was 
in man was betrayed by Judas. He who had received 
as God the homage of the high-priest Caiaphas, was 
calumniated by him. The judge of all the earth was 
the butt of the scoffs of Herod. He who bore our griefs 
was delivered over by Pilate to be scourged. He whom 
myriads of angels obeyed, was struck on the face by the 
rude soldiery. He who stretched out the heavens as a 
curtain, was nailed by His own people to the cross. 
The Spirit, who is one with the Father, lifts to the 
Father a cry of anguish, and He who said, " I have 
power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it 
again," bows His head to death.* 

Hippolytus attributes a unique efficacy to the death 
of Christ in the work of salvation. "The God of the 
universe became man, in order that by suffering in the 
flesh, and being made subject to grief, He might redeem 
our race which was sold unto death." t This doctrine 
of redemption is utterly vague. Hippolytus does not 
make a single allusion to a ransom paid to God Him- 
self. He sees in Jesus Christ first of all a living law, 
which reveals to us the true good underlying all the 
sufferings of the human race, and death in particular. 
*' He has humanly fulfilled all righteousness." X He 
has restored a perfect humanity. *' Like a skilful 

* " Contra Noet," i8. 

f Aid TOVTO ysyovev dvOpwTrog o rwv oXojv Oebi:, 'iva trapKi fifv TradrjTy 
7ro(Txwv uTrav riixaiv r<^' BdvaTij} TcpaQtv \vTp(i)ar]rai y&vog. (" Contra Bero.," 
p. 227 ; "Contra Noet," 17.) 

+ 'O iiovog dvOpcoTriviog irdaav SiKaioovvrjv TrXrjpojaag. (Mai, " Nova 
Bibl. Patrum," vii. 73.) 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 413 

physician, he endeavours to instruct the ignorant, and 
to bring back into the right path those who are going 
astray. He is to be found of all who seek Him, and 
opens the door to every man who knocks with a pure 
heart. He rejects none of His servants. He does not 
esteem the rich more than the poor, as if poverty were 
any ground for contempt. He does not disdain the 
barbarian or the eunuch, as though he had forfeited 
his manhood. Woman is not rejected, though she was 
the mother of transgression, nor her husband, because 
of his disobedience. He is willing to save all without 
exception, so as to make one perfect man after the 
heavenly pattern."* Thus perfect man becomes God,t 
and it is to procure for us this eternal and truly divine 
life He suffered on the cross. This His suffering saves 
us, not as an expiatory sacrifice, but inasmuch as it is the 
highest manifestation of His holiness, and the greatest 
demonstration to our hearts of His love. Salvation 
becomes ours by faith united to good works, t After His 
resurrection He returned into heaven ; thence He will 
come again to judge the world, and to restore to life 
these mortal bodies, the imperishable seed of which is 
buried in the dust.§ Hippolytus depicts in detail the 
great coming conflicts of the Church with Antichrist, 
who, five hundred years after our era, is to come out of 
the tribe of Dan and to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. || 
Hippolytus delights in interpreting the most obscure 

* Big 'iva reXeiov dvOpcorrov KoXiuv. (" De Antechristo," p. 6.) 
f Et ovv dOdvarog ysyovsv 6 dvOpcjTrog larai Kai Osog. (" In Theo- 
phania," p. 264.) 

I Mai, "Nova Bibl. Patrum.,'' vii. 7$. 

§ 'Avrd rd auifiara dviirajp. (IT £ p t t ov tt av r 6 g, p. 22 1.) 

II " De Antechristo," p. 9. 



414 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

oracles of Daniel and of the Revelation. The righteous 
and the wicked, while awaiting this final consummation, 
are in an intermediate place. The former enjoy already 
perfect happiness under the guardianship of the holy 
angels, while the latter anticipate in their present 
torments the eternal anguish which awaits them.* 
The righteous will be made blessed for ever upon a 
renovated earth. t 

The part which Hippolytus took in the violent 
controversies of the Church of Rome is indicative of 
the breadth of his views with regard to the Church. 
This does not present itself to him as a religious 
monarchy despotically governed by the episcopate. 
His strenuous opposition to the bishop of Rome sets 
aside the idea of any primacy belonging to him. Nor 
does Hippolytus admit that the bishops have the power 
of the keys, so that they are invested with peculiar 
authority to dispense the pardons of God. He thus 
distinctly repudiates everything like sacerdotalism. He 
does not allow that the office has any intrinsic virtue 
apart from the spiritual qualifications befitting a Chris- 
tian and a bishop. Neither does he conceive of the 
Church as an impersonal institution, giving shelter alike 
to piety and impiety. He repels indignantly the dan- 
gerous metaphor of Callisthus, who likened it to Noah's 
ark, into which entered both clean and unclean animals. 
He regards it as a holy fellowship of believers.! The 
Church, which finds its actual realisation in the various 
particular Churches, is compared by him to a great 
ship, with Jesus Christ for its pilot and the cross for 

* Uipi Tov Travr 6 g, pp. 220-222. (" Phil," x. 34.) 
f !1 E t TOV TT av TO Q, p. 222. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 415 

its colours.* In another image, he compares it to the 
woman of the Apocalypse, clothed with divine light 
as with the sun. The twelve stars on her brow are 
the apostles, and she travails incessantly in birth till 
the Word be formed in every Christian heart. t The 
rock on which she rests is Jesus Christ alone ;t Hip- 
polytus recognises no other. 

The supreme authority in matters of religion is Holy 
Scripture, the sacred fountain of truth. Inspired 
by God, this is above oral tradition. § The Church's 
chief mission has been to transmit these sacred oracles. || 
St. Hippolytus in the writings which have come down to 
us does not speak of any sacrament but baptism. He 
never separates the sign from the thing signified. If 
he sa3^s that water with the Holy Spirit is an element 
of regeneration,^ he does not intend any physical or 
magical operation, for he insists strongly on the spiritual 
conditions which are required. ''Thou shalt be re- 
generate if thou art no murderer, nor idolater, nor 
licentious. He who goes down with faith into the 
waters of regeneration, forsakes evil and gives himself 
to Jesus Christ."** 

The theology of Hippol3'tus reflects the various in- 

* 'E^a yap fieQ' kavrriQ top tfiTziipov icv€spv))rr]v XpiarSv. (" De Ante- 
christo," 25.) 

f Ov TrdveraL 1) eKfcXijcria yevvuJaa k KapSiaQ top \6yov. (Ibid., p. 30.) 
X Ty TrvevfiariKry TvkTpq., XpL(TT(p. (Mai, " Nova Bibl. Patrum," 73.) 
§ 'Qg k% ayiciQ Trrjytjc. (" De Antechristo," p. 4.) Hippol}1:us con- 
fronts the heretics first with the authority of Scripture : d /ly) Trpuj-ov 
fiiv avrk-LTTTov avrolg m dfiai ypatpai. (Ex " Parvo Labyrintho," apud 
Eusebius, " H. E.," v. 28. Routh, " ReHq.,"ii. 129.) He quotes only 
as subordinate to this the testimony of the Fathers : Ob Tnard'ovcjiv 
dyii^ 7n>ivnaTL XtKh^Bai tclq deiag ypacpdg. (Ibid., p. 1 34-) 

II Uap' u)v KaT')]xriOi]aav ^.u) roiavrag irapsXa^ov rag ypacpdg. (Ibid.) 
^ At' vdarog Koi dyiov -nvd'iiarog. (" De Theophania," p. 264.) 
** K-arataivLov [.lerci -Kjrsojg. (Ibid.) 



4l6 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

fluences at work on the Church of his day. It vacil- 
lates between that of Origen and that of Irenseus, and 
indeed on more than one point coincides with that of 
Tertullian, minus the fervent flame and piercing point. 
It lacks coherence and originality. But it bears out 
its date, for it evidently belongs to an age in which the 
East and West were still in constant and close com- 
munication. The controversialist and the preacher in 
Hippolytus decidedly outweigh the thinker. 

We have only one more theologian to mention be- 
longing to the Western Church : this is Dionysius, 
the bishop of Rome (257-269).* His two predecessors, 
Cornelius and Stephen, distinguished themselves only 
in ecclesiastical controversies. Dionysius took his stand 
as the vigilant guardian of orthodoxy, not only against 
heresy, but also against the school of Origen, whose bril- 
liant representative was Dionysius of Alexandria. He 
also completely repudiated the opinions of Tertullian 
and of Hippolytus as to the non-eternity of the Word. 
After presiding over the council held at Rome, to in- 
quire into the charge brought by the Egyptian bishops 

* Dorner ("Lehre von Pers. Christ.," i. p. 757) places Zeno, 
bishop of Verona, before Dionysius of Rome, pincipally on the 
ground of his doctrine, which he deems to be ante-Nicene. Accord- 
ino- to Zeno, the Word is the full manifestation of the Father, his 
objective ego; they might be spoken of as two seas mingling their 
waters. This outward manifestation, however, would not have 
taken place but for the creation. Thus Zeno approaches Tertullian 
on this latter point, while he differs from him by his affirmation of 
the equality of the Father and the Son. His conception of the in- 
carnation is the same as that of Hippolytus ; but other portions of 
his writings recall Lactantius, Hilarius, and Basil, and confirm the 
passage of St. Ambrose, referring to a certain Zeno, his contem- 
porary. (5th Letter to Syagrius.) The chronological question is 
still too doubtful to allow us to place Zeno among the theologians 
of the first three centuries. 



BOOK II. — THE GRECO-ROMAN SCHOOL. 417 

against the views of Dionysius of Alexandria, Dionysius 
of Rome wrote a circular letter to the complainants. 
Some fragments of this letter have been preserved by 
Athanasius.* The doctrine of the Trinity is there for 
the first time defined with exactness. Dionysius first 
repudiates the extravagant spiritualism of the Sabel- 
lians, who admit only a threefold manifestation of the 
Deity, instead of recognising three divine persons. 
Then he rejects the gross tritheism which makes of 
these persons three distinct divinities. t Lastly, he 
strongly condemns the opinion of both Tertullian and 
Hippolytus, as to the production of the Word at the 
moment of creation. He asserts His eternal divinity.]: 
"It is not lawful to divide into three deities the glorious 
and divine Monad. It is necessary that the Word 
should be united to the God of the universe, that the 
Holy Spirit should dwell and abide in Him, and that 
the sacred Triad should be resolved at length into a 
sublime unity in the Almighty God, the Creator of all 
beings. We must believe in one God, the Father 
Almighty, in Jesus Christ His Son, and in the Holy 
Spirit. The Word is one with the God of the uni- 
verse. § Thus do we hold fast at once the divine Triad 
and the holy doctrine of the divine unity." || Dionysius 
of Rome simplified the matter by merely affirming the 
existence of the Trinity, without giving any doctrinal 

* The fragments of Dionysius of Rome are found in Athanasius: 
" De decretis synodis Nic," c. 4. (Routh, " Reliquiae," iii. p. 373.) 

t Routh, iii. p. 373. 

:|: Ov fisiov d' dv rig KaraiikiKpoiro Kal tovq 7roir}}xa rov vlbv dvai do^dZovrag 
Kul yiyov'svai rbv KvpLou. (Routh, '' Reliquiae," iii. p. 374.) 'Aei dk r)v. 

(Ibid., 375-) 

§ "Rdr] icai t>)v Odav tol'lcci dg am, (iJair.p dg Kopv(pi]v riva, <Tvyice(pa\ai- 
o~v (Ibid.) II Ibid., 377. 

28 



4l8 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

construction of it. The image of the triangle satisfied 
him ; he thus avoided all the difficulties which the 
question of subordination might raise. While he writes 
in Greek, his spirit is plainly that of a Western Father 
and of a bishop of Rome. He contents himself with a 
clear and emphatic formula, which meets the require- 
ments of those whom the teaching of Hippolytus, 
Origen, and Tertullian had roused to opposition. His 
doctrine forms nevertheless a very important link in 
the chain of doctrinal development, which was to find 
its completion in Athanasius and in the decretals of 
Nicaea. He is the forerunner of the school of authori- 
tative metaphysics. With him the age of free doctrinal 
creations seems to pass away. Dionysius of Rome is 
the most complete exponent of the genius of Western 
Rome. We find in him the teacher in whom that genius 
is most fitly expressed, and who, upon the boundary 
between two great periods in the history of Christianity, 
stands like the first landmark of the new path on which 
the Church is about to enter, a path of subserviency to 
official creeds and to external authorities. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 

§ I. The System of TertidlianJ^ 

The history of thought presents no stronger contrast 
than that between the school of Carthage and the 
school of Alexandria. The doctrinal basis is, indeed, 
the same : a clear statement of evangelical facts, with 
the utmost possible vagueness and variety in the expla- 
nation of those facts. The same moral animus also 
pervades the two theologies, which, both alike, protest 
against Gnostic determinism. But the general spirit 
and method of the two systems differ absolutely. The 
mystic idealism, full of speculative boldness, of men 
like Clement and Origen, is exchanged for a deter- 
mined realism, which fears to go beyond its depth, and 
shows a strong tendency to materialism. The motto 
of the school of Carthage, or to speak more correctly, 
of its illustrious founder, is that witty saying applied to 
the quintessence of perfect love : " Thicken religion." 
The subtle and brilliant metaphysics of the great 
Alexandrines is but a bodiless shade in the view of 

* Apart from the works of Tertullian, which I quote from the 
Leipzig edition (Leopold, 1839), ^i^*^ the general works on doctrinal 
history already cited, I may mention Neander's " Antignosticus " 
(Berhn, 1849). See also M. Reville's articles in the " Revue de 
Theologie," Strasburg (1857, 1858). 

28* 



420 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Tertullian. Like Thomas, he would handle the truth 
for himself, and see it with his bodily eyes. If I have 
not thus sensibly realised the divine, he seems to say, 
it has no existence for me. Hence the craving for an 
external authority, a tangible something ; hence the 
strange materialisation both of God and of the soul ; 
hence the cabalistic conception of baptismal regenera- 
tion, and the fanatic doctrine of the final issues of 
history, which are the characteristic features of the 
theology of Tertullian. These grave defects were the 
secret of the strength of his influence in the succeeding 
period, when there was so deep a decadence from 
primitive Christian spirituality. They are to a large 
extent redeemed, however, by the deep earnestness of 
his tone, by the vigour of his religious thought, and the 
incomparable eloquence in which he clothes his ideas. 
On some points Tertullian contributed to the normal 
development of Christian doctrine ; he also made his 
mark on the theology of his age. In spite of his 
adhesion to Montanism, he still exerted the strongest 
influence on the theological thought of the Western 
Church of the third century, because his peculiar views 
bore only upon secondary points, while the general 
tendency of his system was in perfect harmony with 
the spirit of the age. He always thought and wrote 
with the intensity of a partisan, as the determined and 
deadly opponent of Gnosticism. The title of his most 
famous controversial treatise might be applied to his 
entire system, "Contra Marcionem." This is the Alpha 
and Omega of Tertullian's writings. His invariable 
method is to place himself at the antipodes of his 
adversaries. Gnosticism delights in pure speculation, 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 42I 

and mocks at texts and traditions. Tertullian exalts, 
beyond measure, the authority of the past, and makes 
antiquity, in matters of rehgion, the criterion of truth. 
Gnosticism starts with duahsm and ends in docetism. 
Tertulhan represents corporeal life as inseparable from 
the spiritual life in all stages of being, even in the 
highest, and on this ground exalts the flesh, though he 
seeks to mortify it by asceticism. Gnosticism degrades 
and despises Judaism. Tertullian lifts the Old Testa- 
ment so high, that the difference between the law and 
the gospel is almost effaced. Neander has therefore 
with justice named him the anti-gnostic. Herein lies 
his power, his passion, but his weakness also. It is 
always dangerous when we come to regard the truth 
no longer as it is in itself, but as it appears to the 
partial eye of the polemic. 

Throughout the whole of his theology, Tertullian is 
seeking, not the idea, but the fact itself. He reverts to 
this perpetually, like a determined advocate in the 
great doctrinal suit which is pleaded before Christen- 
dom. He is anxious to vindicate the facts alone, caring 
very little about the explanation. This tendency is 
very marked in the discussion of the question — what are 
the sources whence we may lawfully derive our know- 
ledge of the truth ? He replies : Avaunt, philosophy 
and reasoning. Let us take as our guide, nature, 
which is for us the first reality ; but let us take it 
as it came from the hand of God, before it has been 
deformed and transformed by civilisation and its impure 
refinements. Nothing is more beautiful or more divine 
than the primitive order of nature. Thus the work 
of Christ consists exclusively in re-establishing and 



422 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

restoring that order.* The end of the ages will bring 
us back to the beginning, like a perfected circle. The 
Redeemer is the Alpha and Omega ; that is to say, the 
first and last word of religious history is one and the 
same. Let us, then, interrogate nature, whether in the 
outer world, or in our soul, but rising, as we do so, 
above culture and science, which have more or less 
falsified nature. The Bible is a divine book, but it 
has been interpolated by Satan. t Let us seek to read 
the original text in the flower of the fields, or in the 
fresh, artless feeling of the human heart, uncorrupted 
by education. The divine nature will speak to us by 
both voices, and will proclaim to us the true God, who 
created both mind and matter, and who will restore us 
by the Saviour to Himself. " The human race, as a 
whole, knows the God of Moses, even though it knows 
not Moses or his book. The soul is more ancient than 
philosophy ; conscience is the first gift bestowed on 
it by God. God has never been hidden, never has He 
left mankind. He has been always apprehended, heard, 
contemplated by every soul that has not turned away 
from Him. God has His witnesses in all that we 
are, and all that surrounds us. I True nature is a 
divine reality. The more closely then we return to this 
true nature, rising above all that has been superadded 
to it, the more we come to realise again its primitive 
condition, the more nearly shall we approach the 
divine. It follows that antiquity is itself an evidence 

^ " In Christo omnia revocantur ad initium." (Tertullianus. 

"De monogam.,'' chap. 5.) 

f " Diabolo, interpolatore nature." (" De cultu femin.," i. 8.) 
I "Ante anima quam prophetia. Habet Deus testimonia, totum 

hoc quod sumus at in quo sumus." (" Adv. Marc./'' i. 10.) 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 423 

of truth. That which was is the rule of that which 
is to be.* What is a new God, but a false God ?t In 
all things truth precedes its image ; imitation comes 
after the reality.:}; It would be absurd, then, to pretend 
that heresy is anterior to sound doctrine. On closer 
examination, the gospel is found to be no new thing. 
It is new only in the ultimate form which it gives to 
religion, but its essential doctrines are discovered in 
the most ancient traditions of the human race. There 
has been no unforeseen event, as Marcion asserts, 
coming suddenly upon the world. " Nothing that 
comes from God is sudden, since all forms part of a 
well-ordered plan."§ 

The chain of revelation shows an unbroken succes- 
sion of links running through all the ages ; a principle 
of continuity is plainly traceable through the whole 
religious evolution from Adam to Jesus Christ. In 
reality, it is one and the same religion, always 
identical with itself, which has been continuously 
developed ; thus its antiquity may be appealed to as 
its first claim to our confidence. It is strange to see 
Tertullian insisting so strongly upon the continuity of 
the religious idea, when we remember his ordinary 
style of thought and writing, in which he delights in 
antithesis, and seems only to sew the new piece of the 
gospel into the old garment of nature, in order to rend 
the latter in pieces by the former. 

"i^ " Omnis res anterior posteriori regulam prasministravit." ("Adv. 
Marc," i. 9.) 

f " Quid Deus novus nisi falsus ? '^ (Ibid., 8.) 

I "In omnibus Veritas imaginem antecedit." ("De pra^script.," 

29-) 

§ '■ Nihil a Deo subitum, quia nihil a Deo non dispositum." 
('• Adv. .Alarc." iii. 2.) 



42 4 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Holy Scripture is the most ancient religious tradition 
in the order of revelations. Hence the immutable con- 
fidence which we should place in it. " Moses lived 
nine hundred years before Saturn ; how much more 
ancient then must he be than all his descendants ; 
hence unquestionably the most divine teacher is this 
Moses, who records the wanderings of mankind ever 
since the world began, designating each birth, each 
name, each period, and proving the divinity of his 
work by the inspiration of his word."* Thus divine 
inspiration combines with antiquity to give supreme 
authority to Holy Scripture. Tertullian believes in 
literal verbal inspiration. " Our sacred Scriptures," 
he says, " are the very words and letters of God."t 
The same divine spirit was the leader of Moses and 
of Paul. I The Holy Spirit has so ordered His Scrip- 
tures, that they instruct us in the development and 
origin of things. § In his "Apology," Tertullian closely 
connects the authority of Scripture with that of nature 
and of conscience. After appealing to the testimony 
of the naturally Christian conscience, he adds : " It 
was the will of God that we should come to a more 
full and deep understanding of His plan and purposes ; 
thus He added to nature the instrument of a written 
revelation.il He sent from the beginning men, worthy 
by their innocence and uprightness, to know and reveal 
Him, and on these He poured forth in floods His 
Divine Spirit. The words spoken, and the miracles 

* "Multo antiquior Moyses etiam Saturno." (" De anima," 28.) 
f "Inspice Dei voces, litteras nostras." ("Apol.," 31.) "Dei 
litteras." (Ibid., 2.) | " De oratione," 17. 

§ "Adv. Hermog.," 22. 
II " Instrumentum adjecit litteraturas." (" Apol," 18.) 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 425 

wrought by these men to establish faith in the Godhead, 
remain in sacred literature as in a treasury open to all. 
The primary authority of the book is conferred upon it 
by its high antiquity.* The last of the prophets ceased 
to speak when the first of the Greek philosophers 
appeared. These were acquainted with the sacred 
Hebrew Scriptures, as may be perceived from their 
writings, for error itself is made up of the materials 
of truth. t TertulHan acknowledges, indeed, that the 
miraculous character of the sacred books, which is so 
evident in their prophetic portion, sets upon them a 
seal still more divine than mere antiquity. Never- 
theless, it is really upon the latter evidence that he 
lays the greatest stress. The whole of this theory of 
inspiration is full of contradictions. On the one 
hand, we have the theory of absolute theopneustia, 
the very words being dictated by the Holy Spirit, 
though no difference be shown between the spoken and 
written words of the prophet. On the other hand, 
this literal inspiration does not establish any radical 
difference between the Bible of historic revelation and 
the Bible of nature and of conscience, since the former 
is but the complement of the latter. - The divine in the 
supernatural is not opposed to the divine in the natural 
order, or rather, both are in essential harmony with the 
true nature, whether we discover it in the world and in 
the heart of man, or whether it be restored by revela- 
tion. Tertullian always seeks to go back to the divine 
original, to the unfalsified reality. Hence the pre- 
dominant part he assigns to antiquity as the standard 

* "ApoL," 18. 

f " Omnia adversus veritatem de veritate constructa sunt." 
(Ibid., 47-) 



426 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

of truth. His ideas on canonicity are not more exact 
than those of his contemporaries : they are vague and 
variable.* 

The same considerations lead him to enunciate a 
doctrine of tradition so narrow that its result was, in 
spite of his ulterior protest, to inaugurate the triumph 
of the hierarchy. His ''Treatise on Prescriptions" is 
the most signal service ever rendered to religious 
despotism. The title of this writing is taken from the 
language of the bar. The former advocate of Carthage 
would transfer to the great religious controversy, the 
convenient process by which judicial cases are cut 
short when they threaten to be unduly prolonged. 
Such a proceeding is perfectly legitimate in the sphere 
of inferior interests, which are necessarily regulated by 
a relative and limited justice. It is otherwise when 
eternal truth is at stake ; then no prescription is ad- 
missible, no mouth may be closed, no inquiry arrested 
in the mind. We must not charge Tertullian with 
inconsistency with himself, because, after giving fuller 
recognition than any other teacher to the authority of 
conscience, he seeks to make us bend under the yoke of 
tradition, and fetters us in our research. Here, again, 
he is faithful to his principle of the conformity of truth 
to the primeval nature of things. That which he re- 
gards as primitive and natural, is the spontaneous 
assent of the soul to the gospel truth contained in the 
sacred writings. All that goes beyond this assent, 
every essay of speculation, takes us out of the true 
'•^ Tertullian quotes as inspired the Book of Enoch (" De idolat.," 
4 ; " De cultu femin.," i. 3), the Sibylline books ("Ad nation.," ii. 
42), the "Pastor" of Hernias ("De orat.," 12). He does not quote 
the epistle of James, those of Peter, or the minor epistles of John. 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 427 

order of nature. He uses, but in a peculiar sense, the 
language of the Book of Proverbs, that God has made 
man upright, but that he has sought out many inven- 
tions. The upright heart is the naturally Christian 
conscience, which worships the God of the Bible. The 
many inventions are arguments and philosophies treat- 
ing of divine realities to explain them away. His 
treatise on Prescriptions is in full harmony with his 
sublime treatise on the Testimony of the Soul. That 
which Tertullian would prohibit at all costs, is the 
thorough investigation of religious truth. If it is said 
to us : Seek, and ye shall find, this commandment 
applies only to the period preceding the formation of 
the faith.* Jesus uttered these words at the com- 
mencement of His ministry, before He had fully 
established His divinity. The same precept applies 
equally to the pagans, who, in their profound ignor- 
ance, cannot know Christ directly. But the Master did 
not intend to invite us to indefinite inquiry ; we are to 
seek till we have found, and then to content ourselves 
with the faith which will thenceforward suffice us.t We 
have but to guard our treasure. " Whosoever believes 
has found ; whosoever seeks has not yet found, or he 
has lost again that which he had found." t So long as 
we stand knocking at the door, we show that it has not 
yet been opened to us. It is only lawful to seek within 
the enclosure of truth; the woman of the parable did 
not go beyond her house to look for her lost piece of 

* " De prsescript.," 8. 

f " Qu^rendum est, donee invenias, et credendum, ubi inveneris." 
(Ibid, 9.) 

I " Nemo quaerit, nisi qui aut non habuit, aut perdidit." (Ibid, 
4.) 



428 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

silver.^ Let as, then, also abide at home, as it were ; 
let us not trust to strangers : let us not go beyond the 
rule of faith, handed down to us by the Church. This 
rule, laid down by Christ Himself, cannot raise any 
questions, unless it be on the part of the heretics, and 
to add to their number/ Let us be careful not to 
dispute or seek to deepen that rule, even by a pro- 
found examination of Holy Scripture, for this would be 
to pander to curiosity, which ought to be subordinate 
to faith, as the love of glory to salvation. '' To know 
nothing beyond the law, is to know all things." C 

The question of the supreme authority of the Scrip- 
tures, as appealed to by the heretics in opposition to 
the faith cf tradition, was still a grave one. Tertullian 
enters on it with much frankness, not shrinking from a 
rigid following out of its principles to their conse- 
quences. He is perfectly justified in objecting to his 
adversaries, that they play with those sacred books 
which they choose to use as a shield, for they reject in 
the most arbitrary manner all that they cannot make 
subservient to their purpose. Instead of invoking the 
principles of a sound criticism at once religious and 
scientific, Tertullian declares that the Scriptures may 
be made to yield anything they seek, and will accom- 
modate them to every caprice of interpretation. § They 
need, therefore, to be studied by the light of the sound 
doctrine contained in the rule of faith.] It was a 
strange depreciation of the Divine Book to assert that it 

* " Intra tectum suum.'' (''De prescript.," 12.) f Ibid., 13. 
I " Adversus regulam nihil scire, omnia scire est.'"'" (Ibid., 14.) 
§ Ibid., 39. 

li " Ubi apparuerit esse veritatem disciplinse et tidei christians 
iUic, erit Veritas scripturarum.'' (Ibid., 19.) 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 429 

could not be understood by its own light ; even when 
accepted in good faith in its general scope, in the 
spirit, and not in the dead letter. After all, was not 
the rule of faith, itself susceptible, like all human 
speech of various interpretations ? If an external 
authority is required to fix the sense of the Scriptures, 
such an authority must be equally necessary for the 
tradition of the Church, and thus no solid basis is to be 
found an3^^vhere. 

Tertullian endeavours, by his theory of the apos- 
tolate, to make Jesus Christ Himself the founder of 
religious authority. He considers that Christ made 
the apostles, by a direct mandate, the infallible ex- 
ponents of true doctrine. The apostles not only 
wrote books, but founded Churches. These are the 
sole depositaries of truth, and they constitute that 
catholicity which is not bound by any outward organi- 
sation, but simply by brotherly love and by the unity of 
the faith, as derived from the rule of faith which is its 
invariable and universal expression.* Apostolic infalli- 
bility guaranteed by miracle,t is not impaired by any 
error of conduct like that which St. Paul charges 
against St. Peter in the city of Antioch, for such 
practical mistakes in no way affect the doctrine itself, t 
The language of the apostle of the Gentiles, when he 
commits the trust to Timothy, § is a sure pledge of the 
transmission of the truth in the truly apostolic 
Churches, which are in a manner the mothers of all 
the rest.il The Holy Spirit, sent by Christ, preserved in 

* " De prescript.," 20. f Ibid., 30. I Ibid, 23. § Ibid., 25. 

II " Ecclesiis apostolicis matricibus et originalibus fidei." (Ibid.) 
" Sine dubio tenentem quod Ecclesi^ ab apostolis, apostoli a 
Christo, Christus a Deo accepit." (Ibid., 21.) 



430 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

its purity the teaching of the first witnesses of Christ.* 
If, then, we would possess the unadulterated truth, we 
must look to these Churches. Western Christianity 
has readiest access to the great Church of Rome, which 
has no other claim to preference but that of nearness, 
since it can glory in nothing over the Churches of the 
East, whose institution can in like manner be traced 
back to the apostles. t This is the sure method of 
arriving at infallible truth, and of discovering the true 
meaning of the Scriptures, while avoiding all disputa- 
tion and dangerous questioning. 

Let it not be presumed that this tradition may be 
insufficient, on the ground that Jesus Christ may not 
have revealed everything to His disciples, or that these 
may have kept to themselves some secret doctrine.! 
There is no such subterranean current of tradition ; all 
is contained in the rule of faith. This is the truly 
venerable tradition ; the good seed was sown before the 
tares; heresy may have made its way into the field, and 
scattered some germs of error, but it is not the first 
occupant, and its incursions are plainly foretold and 
strongly denounced by the apostles. § The field belongs 
to the Churches founded by the first disciples of Christ, 
and to all those who, by consanguinity of doctrine, 
form one body with them.|l Will the false teachers 
dare to oppose their prescriptions to ours ? We are in 
all things their predecessors ; they only come after us. IT 

''' " De prcescript," 28. 

f " Si potes in Asiam tendere, habes Ephesum. Si autem Italise 
adjaces, habes Romam, unde nobis quoque auctoritas prassto est." 
(Ibid, 36.) I Ibid, 22. § Ibid, 33. 

II " Pro consanguinitate doctrinse." (Ibid, 32.) 

IT " Posterior nostra res non est, imo omnibus prior est." (Ibid., 
35.) 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 43I 

We hold our title direct from the apostles, who approve 
our doctrine as strongly as they condemn all that is 
opposed to it. Thus the judge that ends the strife is 
not the Divine Book, since that may be variously 
interpreted, and Christians ought not to allow heretics 
to appeal to this book in order to lead them into 
disputation. It is without the Scriptures that the 
Church convinces them they have no part nor lot in the 
matter ; it takes its stand upon the authority of Jesus 
Christ, which is confounded with that of the apostles, 
and which is embodied in the common faith of the 
Churches founded by them. Thus it is justified in 
asking these intruders by what right they cut down its 
forests, destroy its canals, and move its landmarks. 
" This is my domain," the Church may say, " my 
ancient possession ; my title is received from those 
to whom it first belonged. I am the inheritor of the 
apostles. I am in possession by their will and testa- 
ment ; I fulfil the testamentary conditions. As for you, 
they repudiated and branded you as strangers and 
enemies."* No proscription could be more clear and 
rigorous than this. 

Let us endeavour to elicit from this remarkable 
treatise, which has exercised so great an influence on 
the formation of ecclesiastical authority, the points of 
doctrine clearly derivable from it. The final authority 
is not that of Holy Scripture, but the unanimous tradi- 
tion of the Apostolic Churches, which is the authentic 
expression of the teaching of the apostles, epitomised 
in the rule of faith. That tradition is complete ; there 
is nothing to be added to or taken from it. The Church 
'•' " Extranei et inimici." (" De prescript.," 37.) 



432 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

has, then, no commission to augment or to interpret 
this tradition, for it comes directly from Christ and 
His apostles. The Apostolic Churches have no superi- 
ority over the rest except as sources of information ; 
they are in a manner the depositaries of the sacred 
archives, which are to be preserved by them intact and 
unalterable. It would be a grave error to compare the 
theory of TertuUian with the ecclesiastical system, 
which is not content with making the Church the 
depositary of the true apostolic doctrine, but which 
constitutes it an active authority, forming decisions on 
points of doctrine, and enforcing them by virtue of its 
official character. TertuUian holds that the primitive 
apostolate speaks by the Church, as it spoke when its 
representatives first preached the Gospel to the world. 
I know, indeed, that after he became a Montanist, he 
asserted the constant development of revelation and 
the continuity of inspiration. Those who condemned 
him profited nevertheless by his twofold error ; they 
combined the two ideas which succeeded each other 
in his mind, though with him the second error cast 
out the first. The Church of later days accepted the 
authority of the rule of faith, but it also believed in 
its own inspired right to interpret, and soon began to 
add to it. The gravity of such a synthesis in the 
formation of a system of authority is at once evident. 
With regard to the constitution of the Church, 
TertuUian, even before his conversion to Montanism, 
taught nothing which could lend support to the 
hierarchical system. Catholicism, as he represents it, 
is a purely spiritual society, without any official bond 
of union. He never, like Irenseus, gave sanction to 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 433 

the episcopal power, against which he subsequently 
launched such stern invectives. He nowhere gave any 
explanation of the manner in which the rule of faith 
was formed; he does not go beyond the historical claim 
established by the succession of the Apostolic Churches; 
he does not nominate any guardians of this tradition, 
which remains the real doctrinal power in the Church. 
Clearly this is an omission from the point of view he 
occupies ; it needs the supplement already given by 
Irenaeus, who saw in the episcopate the true apostolic 
succession. Tertullian is not influenced by any hierar- 
chical tendency, but purely and simply by his desire 
to guard against the dangers of speculation, and to cut 
short the investigation of truth. Therefore he makes 
antiquity the final touchstone ; this is confounded, in 
his view, with the true nature of things, which is to 
be found only in the origin of institutions. While 
we thus perceive the consequences which will follow 
from the principles he has laid down, it is not just to 
impute these directly to Tertullian, and we are bound 
to admit that in this problem of religious authority he 
remained steadily faithful to the essentially realistic 
tendency of his system. The manner, so strikingly 
individual and original, in which we shall find him 
interpreting the rule of faith, shows how impossible it 
is to suppose the acceptance as a whole of any body of 
orthodoxy whatever, for each ardent champion could 
not but set upon it the seal of his own individuality. 

Let us speak first of that which is properly called 
the theology of Tertullian. We shall lay stress only on 
those points which bring into prominence his peculiar 
tenets. *'The God whom we adore," he says, "is 

29 



434 I'HE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

one."* He has no equal, else there would be two 
absolute Beings, which is a contradiction, for the 
absolute is necessarily unique. If God is not the one 
God, He is no God. To suppose a second God is, then, 
to deny the Deity.t He is invisible, incomprehensible, 
above all understanding, except He reveal Himself.J 
He is eternal, having neither beginning nor end ; He is 
also Almighty. § He is supremely wise and sovereignly 
free. II Fearful above all things of losing the divine 
substance in pure idealism, Tertullian does not hesitate 
to admit that the invisible, ineffable God has a body. 
Pure spirit is to him a great void ; the divine substance 
is the supreme reality. Therefore God, purely spiritual 
as He is, has a body which is, as it were, the form of 
His Spirit ; hence man could be created in His like- 
ness.^ Goodness and justice are the moral attributes 
of the Deity, and should never be placed in opposition 
as an irreducible antithesis. God is essentially love or 
goodness. He manifests this goodness in all time, but 
always in harmony with reason, and on principles of 
justice. " Goodness precedes justice ; the former is 
the very nature of God ; severity is only occasionally 
manifested when evil has been done."** Goodness 
would cease to be goodness if it were wanting in 
justice. These two great attributes are manifested in 

* "ApoL," 17. 

f " Duo summa, quomodo consistent ?" (" Adv. Marc," i. 3.) 

I "Apol,"i7. 

§ " In ^ternitate constitutum, innatum." (" Adv. Marc," i. 3.) 

II " Adv. Marc," iii. 5. " Nulla vis aderit illi." (" Adv. Hermog.," 

17.) 
IT " Ouis enim negabit Deum corpus esse ?" ("Adv. Prax.," 7.) 
*-'' " Prior bonitas Dei secundum naturam, severitas posterior 
.secundum causam." ("Adv. Marc," ii. 11 ; comp. Ibid., i. 23.) 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 435 

creation, for if the world was produced by goodness, 
it is governed and regulated by justice.* Tertullian 
perceives justice in the natural laws according to 
which light was separated from darkness, the earth 
from the heaven, the waters beneath from, the waters 
above, and even in the distinction of the sexes. Jus- 
tice thus finds its primary application in the physical 
world before it is realised in the sphere of morals. It 
assumes the form of wrath and punishment in view of 
sin.t This thought is very grand. God is love, but 
love is holy and condemns its opposite. There is no 
other way of reconciling justice and goodness, for so 
long as they are regarded as attributes in opposition, 
and, as it were, distinct entities, which must be treated 
as powers with differing interests, dualism is inevitable. 
The theologians of Alexandria had indeed affirmed the 
radical and essential unity of the two attributes, by 
saying that goodness is holy ; but they had not 
sufficiently guaranteed the just claims of God. Ter- 
tullian was more exact on this point. Unhappily, he 
carried to too great a length the comparison between 
the justice of God and the anger of man, taking his 
stand on the analogy which ought to subsist between 
the image and its prototype. We resemble God not 
only in the rational part of our being, but also in the 
passions and affections. It is necessary that God 
should experience all the feelings which our acts are 
calculated to awaken — anger against the evil, bitterness 
towards the ungrateful, aversion from the proud ; in a 
word, He must needs resent all wickedness on the 

''' " Omnia ut bonitas concepit, ita justitia distinxit." (" Adv. 
Marc," ii. 12.) f "De anima," 16 ; "Adv. Marc.,"i. 26. 

29 * 



43^ THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

same ground as He has pity on souls wandering in 
error, and takes pleasure in the good.* Tertullian is 
ever under the same fear of seeing feelings resolved 
into mere ideas. He imagines that the justice and 
severity of God- have no reality, except as they 
resemble the passionate movements of our hearts. 

In spite of his strong repugnance to metaphysics, he 
cannot evade them when he comes to treat of the most 
obscure point in the divine ontology — that grave pro- 
blem of the Trinity, so much debated in his day, and 
which, in the absence of any official and authoritative 
theory, necessarily stimulated intellectual subtlety.t 
He had to harmonise the rule of faith, which was very 
positive as to the pre-existence and divinity of the 
Word, with the tenets of a positive monotheism, which 
was the imperious demand of the Christian conscience. 
The success of the unitarian monarchism of Praxeas 
was due to no other cause. In view of such a position, 
of the danger of which Tertullian was fully conscious, 
he did not have recourse to the convenient and 
summary process of prescription ; he entered into 
discussion, and endeavoured to overcome error by 
acknowledging the element of truth that might be 
contained in it. If he did not discover the final 
solution, he at least helped to prepare the way for it, 
by his novel and suggestive treatment of the doctrine of 
the Trinity. He began by boldly asserting, as we have 
seen, the unity of God ; the absolute is incompatible 

* " Iram propter scelestos et bilem propter ingratos et semula- 
tionem propter superbos." ("Adv. Marc./' ii. i6.) 

f The whole Christology of Tertullian is found in his treatise 
'' Adv. Praxeam," and " De carne Christi." 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 437 

with duality. "He is alone," said Tertullian: "there is 
nothing beyond Him. Nevertheless, He was not abso- 
lutely alone ; He had with Him and in Himself reason, 
for God is a God of reason ; that which is in Him in 
the very first place is reason, which is the consciousness 
He has of' Himself. We recognise in this reason the 
Logos of the Greeks."* It is not personal, however, 
and is distinguished from th? Word properly so called, 
as in man thought precedes articulate speech. God is 
thus reason before He is the Word. The former is the 
substance of the latter, the hidden source w^hence it will 
spring. There is, moreover, identity of essence between 
the reason and the \Vord. " Even before God had 
given forth His Word, He had it in Himself, in His 
reason, for He thought and ordered in silence that 
which He would shortly utter by His Word."t These 
terms are clear. Tertullian does not recognise any 
more than Justin or Athenagoras the eternal and 
personal pre-existence of the Word. He regards it as 
existing before the creation only in the divine thought. 
Nay, more; this thought is not primarily the conscious- 
ness which God has of Himself; it is rather the eternal 
idea of creation, for as He has just told us, God thinks 
that which He is about to utter by His Word. Now, 
this divine utterance, replete with life, like all that 
proceeds from God, is the world, and chiefly that which 

* "Ante omnia Deus erat solus, ne tunc quidem solus, habebat 
enim secum, quam habebat in semet ipso, rationem suam scilicet. 
Hunc Grseci \6yov dicunt." (" Adv. Prax.," 5.) 

f " Cum rationem competat antiquiorem haberi, quia non sermo- 
nalis a principio, sed rationalis Deus, etiam ante principium. Etsi 
Deus nondum sermonem suum miserat, proinde eum cum ipsa et in 
ipsa ratione intra semet ipsum habebat, tacite cogitando et dis- 
ponendo secum quae per sermonem mox erat dicturus." (Ibid.) 



438 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

is the object and final end of creation — the moral 
creature, who for us, and in our sphere, is no other 
than man. The Word of God is not indeed to be 
confounded with the world. He is its Author, the 
organ of the creative power, a true divine person ; but 
it is nevertheless true that He exists only in relation to 
the world and as the prototype of the moral creature. 
There is an evolution in the bosom of the Deity or of 
the absolute, but it is not designed solely for the full 
realisation of the Deity, if we may so express it. If 
God had remained alone, there would have been no 
necessity for it ; it is an evolution called for only by the 
necessities of the creation. In other words, the Unity 
becomes the Trinity, only for the sake of the world. 
This is the great imperfection of the theology of Ter- 
tuUian, as -of most of his contemporaries. He has 
brought it out in full relief, so to speak, by the vigour 
of his language. 

When God was about to produce the world, with all 
its categories of beings, he sent forth His Word. We 
recognise in this Word the wisdom of the Proverbs, 
which cries : " The Lord created me in the beginning 
of His way, before His works of old."* The inward 
Word has become the outward ; it assumed its form 
and mode of life when God said, ''Let there be light. "t 
Such is the perfect nativity of the Word which proceeds 
from God. This Word, Tertullian calls the first-born 

^' " Ut primum Deus voluit ea qu^ cum Sophise ratione et 
sermone disposuerat intra se, in substantias et species suas edere, 
ipsum primum protulit sermonem, ut per ipsum fierent universal' 
(" Adv. Prax.," 6.) 

f " Tunc sermo speciem et ornatum suum, sumit, cum dicit Deus: 
fiat lux." (Ibid., 7.) 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 439 

Son of God. He thus emerges from philosophical 
abstraction, and insists on the reHgious aspect of this 
grave and difficult problem. The Word proceeding 
from the Father was the first-born, only Son, He who 
alone was begotten of the Father, coming forth from His 
very heart. Nothing empty and unreal could emanate 
from God, as if He Himself could be assimilated to that 
which is unreal and empty. It follows that the Word 
is substantial like the Father, and that He shares in 
the divine reality, which is inseparable from corpore- 
ality.*' This production of the Word may be fitly 
called His emanation, provided only that word be 
not used in the sense attached to it by the Valen- 
tinian heresy, which recognises the TEon as distinct 
from the principle whence it emanates, and as re- 
taining only a feeble reflection of it.f 

Tertullian, on the contrary, regards the Word as 
abiding in absolute union with the Father. He 
alone knows Him, reveals Him, and shows to us all 
that he has seen and heard with the Father. He is 
with the Father, for ever inseparable from Him. This 
is the true emanation. The Son emanates from the 
Father as the fruit from the root, the stream from the 
source, the ray from the sun.t It is in this sense we 
must recognise the divine duality. The root and the 
fruit are indeed two things, but closely united ; we 
distinguish between the source and the stream, though 
they are indivisible. Thus the duality or triplicity of 
the Deity may be reached by the same process. " The 
eternal thought is in the Father ; the Word expresses 

H= "Adv. Prax.,"7. f Ibid., 8. 

I " Protulit Deus sermonem sicut radix fruticem et fons fluvium 
et sol radium." (Ibid.) 



440 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

it in creation, and the Spirit brings all to perfection. 
The Spirit emanates from the Spirit. God emanates 
from God, as light from light. That which comes 
forth from God is God, or the Son of God, and the two 
are one."* The Divine Being is not multiple in His 
essence, but in His mode of action : He comprehends 
not several conditions, but several degrees. t After the 
sun we have the ray, and after the ray, the reflection ; 
so after the Father we have the Son, and after the Son, 
the Holy Spirit ; but the same attributes belong to the 
three persons. 

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is not clearly stated 
by Tertullian. It is certain that he recognises His 
personality, as well as that of the Word ; but that 
personality has also a beginning. The Spirit is not 
distinguished from the Word until the ascension, as 
the Word itself was not distinguished from the Father 
until creation. The Son, in returning to heaven, gives 
the Spirit to the Church as the third name in the God- 
head. J Thus the Trinity descends from the Father 
by degrees, following each other in close and necessary 
sequence, without at all infringing on the divine monar- 
chy. § Tertullian calls it the economic, that is to say, the 

* " Ita de Spiritu Spiritus et de Deo Deus. Quod de Deo per- 
fectum est, Deus est et Dei Filius et unus ambo." (" Apol.," 21.) 

f " Alterum non numero, gradu." (Ibid.) 

I " Paracletum a Patre se postulaturum cum ascendisset ad 
Patrem, et missurum repromittit, et quidem alium. (" Adv. Prax.,'' 
25.) Spiritum sanctum tertium nomen divinitatis effudit." (Ibid., 
30.) See Reville (articles before quoted). See also the observa- 
tions on the original identity of- the Word and the Spirit in the 
treatise "Adv. Hermog.," iv., where the Spirit, like the impersonal 
Word, bears the name Wisdom. " Spiritus sermoni inerat." ("Adv. 
Prax.," 7.) 

§ " Ita trinitas per consertos et connexos gradus a patre decur- 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 44I 

successive, Trinity ; like the Jewish and Christian 
economies, which were, in a manner, the movement 
or evolution upon earth of the divine thought. The 
evolution is, in this case, transferred to the celestial 
sphere. It is impossible to maintain the eternity of 
the Trinity on such a conception of it. " There was 
a time," says Tertullian, plainly, " when the Son 
was not."* 

From this principle two results follow : the identity 
of nature, but the marked subordination of the Son and 
Spirit in relation to the Father. " The Father is the 
totality of substance ; the Son has a derived and 
limited existence, as He declared when he said : ' The 
Father is greater than L' The Father is not con- 
founded with the Son, for he is the greater. He 
who begets and He who is begotten, are not one 
and the same, nor is He who is sent identical with 
Him who sends Him."t The same subordination is 
manifest in the relation of the Holy Spirit to the Son 
and to the Father. There is no possibility on this 
system of merging all the Divine persons in one, as 
though the Son was only another name for the 
Father. No ; the Father is the Father only because 
He has the Son. This distinction of the persons 
detracts nothing from the divinity of the Son ; we 
call Him God, as we call the ray sunlight. It is by 
means of this subordination that the divine has been 
able to descend from its transcendental height. The 

rens et monarchias nihil obstrepit, et oitcovofiiag statum protegit.'' 

("Adv. Prax.,"8.) 

* " Fuit tempus cum ei Filius non fuit." (" Adv. Hermog.," 3.) 
f " Pater tota substantia est, Filius vero derivatio totius et portio. 

Pater Filio major." (" Adv. Frax./' 7.) 



442 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Father is invisible because of the glory of His Majesty; 
He could not manifest Himself directly, nor humble 
Himself to our low estate. The Son is the Divine 
made accessible, the God who may be heard and seen, 
the God who can stoop, because He is not the absolute 
but the derived divinity.* He is like the ray which 
our eyes can look upon without pain, while gazing upon 
the sun they would be blinded by excessive brightness. 
We can endure the light in a softened and diminished 
lustre ; we could not bear it in its full shining. Again, 
the Father is impassible ; the Son alone was able to 
take upon Himself the sufferings by which our redemp- 
tion was to be wrought. While the stream remains 
calm at the source, it is troubled as it flows along ; it 
is the same water still, but under different conditions. t 
Thus subordination is the necessarycondition of reve- 
lation. The Word had already manifested Himself in 
angelic form under the Old Covenant ; these preliminary 
incarnations foreshadowed and prepared the way for 
the crowning condescension, when the Lord became the 
babe of Bethlehem. J It is the Son who comes down to 
our earth, who asks questions, who makes vows. Thus 
the notion of the absolute, that which Tertullian calls 
the philosophical idea of God, remains intact. All that 
is incompatible with it is assigned to the Son, who had 
power to take upon Him our humanity, and in human 
form to suffer shame and the cross. § 

The conception of the incarnation does not present 
any difficulty to him as regards the divine ontology, for 

"!' " Invisibilem Patrem intelligamus pro plenitudine majestatis ; 
visibilem vero Filium agnoscamus pro modulo derivationis." ("Adv. 
Prax.," 14.) f Ibid., 29. J Ibid., 16. § "Adv. Marc," ii. 27. 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 443 

there is a natural relation between man and the Word. 
The Word is not only the principle, but the type of 
humanity. The terrestrial creation sighs after man as 
its consummation. Itself the work of the Word, called 
by Him out of nothing, its purpose is to show forth 
the majesty of the divine glory. ^ Matter cannot be 
eternal, else it would be possessed of an essential 
attribute of the Godhead. t It cannot have come forth 
from the bosom of God, or the indivisible would have 
been divided.! To suppose that creation was a neces- 
sity, would be to limit the absolute, and to impugn His 
independence. § In support of the contrary theory, 
some urge the existence of evil which is ascribed to 
matter, but evil is virtually vindicated if it is made 
eternal as God Himself, and imputed to Him as a 
condition of being, determined by His own will.|| The 
object of creation is the glory of God, which can, 
however, never be realised apart from goodness, the 
essential attribute of the Deity. The moral creature 
is the crown of the work. 

The apex of being is not occupied by angels, for 
angels have not received the Spirit of God as man 
has ; they are like flames of fire. IT By a singular 
contradiction they are yet supposed to enjoy freedom 
of choice, since the fall of the demons is laid entirely 
to their own charge.*^ -The part taken by Satan in the 
fall of man is important ; he led man aw^ay after him, 

■■' " Totam molem istam de nihilo expressit, in ornamentum 
majestatis su^.'^ ("Apol.,"' 17.) 

f " Adv. Hermog.,"' 4. 

I Ibid., 2. § Ibid., 9. [| Ibid., 10. 

U Afflatus Dei, generosior spiritu materiali quo angeli consti- 
terunt." (" Adv. Marc," ii. 8.) -- " Apol.," 22. 



444 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

and frustrated the lofty purposes of his creation.* No 
higher destiny could be conceived than that for which 
man was formed. He was made both body and soul in 
the very image of the Word, and as though in view of 
the incarnation. The Creator, foreseeing that His Son 
would become man, said, " Let us make man in our 
own image."! Man is at once soul and body ;l while, 
at the same time, there is a clear distinction between 
the two portions of his being, since his soul has a body 
of its own, which shares in the conditions of matter, is 
susceptible, that is, of suffering and joy,'§ it is fed, 
and grows to a greater or less stature. || The soul is 
indivisible and immortal.^ The flesh is not in itself 
evil ; it was moulded by the hand of God to be in after 
times the temple of His Word.** The Divine Phidias 
therein enshrined the soul as an inestimable jewel ;tt 
the flesh serves as the instrument of its immortal 
guest ; it is designed, therefore, to share its destinies. 
Hence the necessity of the resurrection resting on a 
twofold basis. First, divine justice cannot leave the 
flesh unpunished after it has been the handmaid of 
both good and evil during the earthly life.tl In the 

^ " Diabolus ipse sese fecerit, deferendo de Deo." (" Adv. 
Marc," ii. lo.) 

f " Ille enim Christum, sermonem suum, intuens hominem 
futurum: faciamus, inquit, hominem ad imaginem et simiHtudinem 
nostram." (Ibid., v. 8.) 

I " Hie erit homo interior, alius exterior, dupliciter unus." (" De 
anima," 9.) 

§ " Incorporalitas nihil patitur." (" De anima," 7 ; " De resurrect, 
carnis," 17.) || " De anima," chaps. 36-39. IT Ibid., 14. 

"^-'^ " Ita limus ille jam tum imaginem induens Christi futuri in 
carne, non tantum Dei opus erat, sed et pignus." (" De resurrect, 
carnis," 6.) f f " Phidias tantus, Deus vivus." (Ibid., 6.) 

II " Oualis vixerit, talem judicari, quia de eo, quod vixerit, habeat 
judicari." (Ibid., 14.) 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 445 

second place, the infinite mercy seeks to accomplish 
a complete salvation, and to restore the first Adam 
in his entire nature, to the image of the second Adam 
who is risen from the dead.* 

The soul bears the image of God : this image, which 
constitutes its intellectual and moral life, is designed to 
reach a perfect resemblance. t Tertullian rejects the 
famous trilogy of the Platonist psychology, which 
divided the soul into three parts — reason, desire, and 
anger, on the ground that reason reigned alone in the 
primeval soul ; desire and anger were the offspring of 
sin, which had, at first, no existence, t The soul is 
active in the formation, both of ideas and of sensa- 
tions. § It has not descended to earth from a higher 
world, having already passed through various modes of 
existence.il Metempsychosis is contradicted by facts. 
Do we not observe a great diversity in the men com- 
posing successive generations ? Conscience cannot 
acquiesce in a divine sentence executed upon a being 
different from him who has sinned. Besides, the 
hypothesis has no foundation, since our memory cannot 
go back beyond the present life. Moral liberty is the 
appanage of man as of all the higher creatures. U The 
law given to him laid upon him no necessity to evil ; 
it merely gave the occasion for his will to declare itself 
on the one side or the other. It was only by free choice 

* " Resurgit igitur caro per Jesum Christum, qui et homini Deum 
et hominem Deo reddet, carni Spiritum et Spiritui carnem . . . ut 
rursus praesentetur Adam auditurus a Domino : ecce Adam quasi 
unus ex nobis factus est." (" De resurrect, carnis," 63.) 

f " Neque enim facie et corporalibus lineis ad uniformem Deum 
expressus est sed in ea substantia, quam ab ipso Deo traxit, id est 
anima." ("Adv. Marc," ii. 5.) \ " De anima," 16. 

§ Ibid., 17, 18. II Ibid., 28-36. IT "Adv. Marc," ii. 4. 



446 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

that he could rise to the goodness which was not 
natural to him as to God.* This freedom, which is a 
gift of God, is always strengthened and sustained by 
Him. Grace is an abiding power of the spiritual 
order; it triumphs over nature. t The Fall must be 
ascribed to an estranged and rebellious will.| Though 
it leads to perdition, it has not, nevertheless, abso- 
lutely perverted our being, "for the divine element 
within us is rather obscured than extinguished." § 
Nature, corrupted as it is, still reflects the divine. 
Original sin is transmitted by generation, for the soul 
is generated with the body, and grows with it, the 
father transmitting all the good and evil germs which 
are in him.|| Death is the meed of rebellion, and 
passes upon the whole race. IT 

This anthropology, which has some grand aspects, 
might have led Tertullian to a very broad conception of 
the incarnation, and he would thus have avoided the 
trenchant dualism of the two natures in Jesus Christ. 
If man is really created in the image of the Word, 
human nature will reach the full realisation of its idea, 
or of its ideal, in the earthly manifestation of its pro- 
totype. It is strange to find Tertullian less advanced 
and enlightened upon this essential point than Irenaeus. 

>'(i " Bonus natura Deus solus. Ut ergo bonum jam suum haberit 
homo, de institutione adscripta est illi libertas et potestas arbitrii, ut 
ita demum bonus consisteret homo, si ex voluntate jam bonus 
inveneretur." (" Adv. Marc," ii. 6.) 

f " Haec erit vis divinse gratiae, potentior utique natura, habens 
in nobis subjacentem sibi hberam arbitrii potestatem." (" De 
anima," 21.) | "Adv. Marc," ii. 8. 

§ " Ouod enim a Deo est, non tarn exstinguitur, quam obumbra- 
tur. In pessimis ahquid boni." (" De anima," 4.) 

II Ibid., 27. IT Ibid., 50. 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 447 

His treatise " On the Body of Christ " is devoted 
entirely to the incarnation. After estabhshing the 
possibility of miracle, on the ground of the Almighty 
power of God, which has no other limitation than His 
will,* he shows eloquently that the dignity of the Most 
High is not compromised by such a condescension. 
Love finds therein its highest glory. Yes, the Christ 
truly loved that insignificant being whose origin is so 
humble. t For him He came down from, heaven, for 
him He abased Himself unto death, even the death of 
the cross. His love may be measured by the price He 
gave for our ransom. This is the divine folly which 
confounds human wisdom — God, born of a virgin, in 
human flesh, and taking upon Himself in a manner 
the degradation of our nature. If the death of the 
Redeemer was necessary to our salvation. He must 
needs be born in order to die. Let us not quibble with 
the heretics about the body of Christ. It is not com- 
posed of a subtle essence taken from the stars. What 
is gained by the Gnostic view of creation, in which it is 
all regarded as the work of a fallen ^on, and may be 
fitly characterised in a word as the sin of a god?t 
Neither is the body of Christ of angelic substance. 
" It was man who had fallen, man who was to be 
restored." § Equally erroneous is it to regard the flesh 
of the Redeemer as the soul taking a visible form, for 
in that case He would not be one like unto us, and 
could not be our Saviour. Lastly, His soul, like every 

* " Deo nihil impossibile, nisi quod non vult." (" De carne 
Christi," 3.) 

t " Certe Christus dilexit ilium in immunditiis. Amavit utique 
quern magno redemit." (Ibid., 4.) + Ibid,, 8. 

§ " Homo perierat, hominem restitui oportuerat." (Ibid., 14.) 



448 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

other being, had its own body, which may not be 
confounded with the flesh. Let us hold fast to the 
simpHcity, and what might be called the good faith of 
the language. It is our very flesh which the Son of 
God assumed.* Every objection disappears so soon as 
it is admitted that the human body is not by nature 
defiled, but that it becomes so by an act of the will. 
Sin is in the flesh, but the flesh is not sin ; the original 
substance is pure ; it is polluted only by the commis- 
sion of sin. Now, it is this original substance which 
Christ assumed and carried up into heaven. t He took 
it complete and virginal as it was in Adam. It was 
a real body, for it came forth from the womb of a 
daughter of men, the second Eve, but it was kept 
perfectly pure by virtue of the miraculous conception. 
Thus was broken the chain of sinful generation, and 
a new and divine commencement was made. " It was 
meet that He who was to introduce here on earth 
a new birth, should Himself be born by a new mode.J: 
It was not fit that the Son of God should be born of the 
seed of man, for He would then have been entirely 
a son of man. He would not have been the Son of God 
at all, nor would He have been greater than Solomon 
or Jonah. Ebion would then be justified. § The 
divine germ was to be substituted for the human 
seed ; man has become one with God by the union of 
the human flesh with the Spirit of God."|| His birth 
took place in conformity with natural laws. Mary did 
not preserve eternal virginity."^ 
* " De came Christi," 13. f Ibid., 16. 

I " Nove nasci debebat nov^ nativitatis dedicator." (Ibid., 17.) 
§ Ibid., 18. 

II " Sic denique homo cum Deo, dum caro hominis cum Spiritu 
Dei." (Ibid., 18.) H Ibid., 20-23. 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 449 

The incarnation, real as it is, does not in any way 
impair the divinity of the Redeemer; for it is the 
pecuhar character of the Divine nature to abide un- 
changed in the midst of changing circumstances.* 
And yet Tertullian had estabhshed that the nature of 
the Word is distinct from that of the Father in this 
very respect — that it can emerge from the immutable 
absolute. The human and the divine in Jesus are 
rather in juxtaposition than united and blended. While 
the God remains impassible, the man is liable to legal 
defilements. t " The divine ray having entered the 
womb of a virgin, takes the form of flesh : thus is born 
the man who is one with God. This flesh, informed 
by the Spirit, is fed, grows, speaks, eats, and acts ; 
it is our Christ." + These expressions imply an irre- 
ducible duality, which comes out still more clearly 
from the treatise against Praxeas. The divine immu- 
tability is again expressed in all its severity. The 
Word undergoes no change ; He can be no other 
than God, as the flesh cannot cease to be human. 
*'Thus we have two natures, not confounded, but 
united in the single person of Jesus." § The peculiar 
character of these two natures undergoes no change, 
for the Spirit accomplishes the works which belong to 
Him, namely, miracles ; while the flesh submits to all 

■'' " Id est, ut Deus et in omnia converti possit et qualis est per- 
severare." (" De carne Christi," 3.) 

f " Tetigit leprosum, a quo etsi homo inquinari potuisset, Deus 
utique non inquinaretur, incontaminabilis scilicet." (" Adv. Marc," 
iv. 9.) 

I " Iste igitur Dei radius, delapsus in virginem quamdam, et in 
utero ejus caro figuratus, nascitur homo Deo mixtus." (" Apol.," 21.) 

§ " Videmus duphcem statum, non confusum, sed conjunctum in 
una persona Deum et hominem Jesum." ("Adv. Prax.," 27.) 

30 



450 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the sufferings which are its due. "Jesus is then man 
by the flesh, God by the Spirit. In His humanity He 
died, while He remains by the Spirit the Word and 
the Son of God."* It follows from these explicit terms 
that the humanity of Jesus consists essentially only in 
His flesh, that it is entirely passive. We are thus led 
into a new form of docetism, which gravely affects the 
work of redemption. Tertullian speaks indeed else- 
where of the soul of Jesus, which bowed beneath the 
weight of anguish, and uttered the cry of desolation on 
the cross ; but the active part of His being is neverthe- 
less the Spirit of the Word, from which He must needs 
part before He could die. " He united in Himself man 
and God, showing Himself God in His power, a man 
in weakness, giving to man all that is separable 
from His Godhead." t Unquestionably Tertullian re- 
mains a dualist. We lose altogether the notion of a 
humanity created in the image of God, and formed to 
bear His perfect resemblance. This is one of the 
gravest imperfections of his system. 

The work of redemption is affirmed rather than 
defined by him. He attaches great importance to 
the death and resurrection of Jesus ; he speaks the 
language of St. Paul, like all the Fathers, but his 
words convey no clear idea. The notion of expiation, 
strictly speaking, nowhere appears. He insists very 
strongly upon the necessity that Christ should come 
to earth in shame and sorrow before He comes in glory 
to reign. He compares Him to the accursed goat slain 

- "Adv. Prax.," 27. 

f " Miscente in semet ipso hominem et Deum, in virtutibus 
Deum, in pusillitatibus hominem." (" Adv. Marc," ii. 27. See M. 
Reville (article quoted), p. 126.) 



BOOK 11. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 451 

without the camp, and to the goat of expiation, whose 
blood flowed upon the altar for the sins of the people.* 
This blood which redeems us is the blood of the spot- 
less Lamb, the blood even of a God.f Nothing can be 
more explicit than this language ; yet closely pressed, 
it yields only vagueness and uncertainty. The cross 
doubtless occupies the central place in religious history; 
it is the foundation of the Gospel and of our salvation.]: 
It fulfils all the prophecies and types of the Old Testa- 
ment, from the sacrifice of Isaac to the extended hands 
of Moses interceding for his people, which prefigure 
the nailed hands of the victim of Calvary. The cross 
was that power which lifts humanity to heaven like 
the horns of the bull, to which Joseph, that other type 
of Christ, has been compared. It was a victory over 
the demon, and like the serpent of brass, it heals the 
soul which beholds it by faith of the bites of the dia- 
bolical serpent. § Death as well as sin was vanquished 
on Calvary. |! The government was laid upon the 
shoulder of Jesus on the very day when He bowed 
Himself to death upon the accursed tree. The resur- 
rection was the manifestation of His triumph. 

If we ask wherein consisted this triumph over death 
and the demon, we find it is reduced to the idea of a 
holy act, a sacrifice of perfect obedience, which is set 
before us as a model, and which we may copy by the 
aid of Divine grace. Thus, and in no other way, are 
we redeemed from sin. *' Let us ask of God that He 

- " Adv. Marc," iii. 7. f " De pudicitia," 6. 

I " Mors Christ! summum fundamentum Evangelii." (" Adv. 
Marc," iii. 8.) § Ibid., iii. 18. 

II " Superata morte a passione ligni, Christus regnavit." (Ibid., 
iii. 19.) 

30*- 



452 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

will grant us to know and do His will, that we may be 
saved both in heaven and upon earth. That Divine 
will was accomplished by the Saviour in His preaching, 
in His works, and in His sufferings. Clearly, He did 
in all things the will of the Father, and He has thus 
left us an example that we also preach, work, and 
suffer, even unto death." * Jesus is thus a revealer 
and reformer rather than a Saviour. 

There is nothing peculiar and positive in the work 
of Calvary. We also may offer a redeeming sacrifice 
for sin. Martyrdom is a continuation in a lower degree 
of the same sacrifice : it has an expiatory value for him 
who suffers it.t The merit of works is the logical con- 
sequence of such a theory. Faith, by the difficulties 
which it presents to our mind, vindicates for itself a 
place in the category of meritorious works.! The 
prayer of a pure heart, crowned by love and accom- 
panied by the sacred incense of Christian virtues, is 
the acceptable sacrifice to God presented upon the 
spiritual altar.§ By it we satisfy Divine justice. Re- 
pentance and fasting possess expiatory virtue. |i Expi- 
ation, in a word, is simply reparation. It is enough 
that good works take the place of evil. On such a 
conception of salvation, the difference between the Old 

-'- " Est et ilia Dei voluntas, quam Dominus administravit prsedi- 
cando, operando, sustinendo. Sine dubio, quae faciebat, ea erat 
voluntas patris, ad quae nunc nos velut ad exemplaria provocamur." 
(" De orat.," 4.) 

f " Lavacrum sanguinis securum." ('• Contra gnostic, scorpiac," 
6.) 

I " Ut fides, non mediocri praemio destinata, difficultate con- 
staret." (" ApoL," 21.) § " De orat," 23. 

II " Patientia satis Deo fecit ("De patientia," 13). Ouis dubitavit, 
ut homo per eamdem materiam causae satis Deo faciat, per quam 
offenderat. . . . Primordiale delictum expiaretur." (" De jejun.," 3.) 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 453 

and New Testament is completely effaced ; we have 
in the latter a simple development of the doctrine of 
the former ; the Gospel is only the Law amplified and 
spiritualised. The old institutions are abolished like 
circumcision, or completed like the law, or accomplished 
like prophecy, or consummated like faith.* The Sermon 
on the Mount is the supplement of the ancient discipline. 
The Gospel precepts are the abundant harvest yielded 
by the seed deposited by Mosaism.f The Old Testa- 
ment, represented exclusively as a law, loses its highest 
character as a preparation for redemption. Sacrifice 
has no relation to the offering of Calvary; it is only 
the palpable form under which holiness must needs be 
presented to a carnally-minded people, t 

These important restrictions of the redemptive work 
explain the exaggerated estimate of authority enter- 
tained by Tertullian. The man who is but imperfectly 
saved is but half set free. Hence also springs that inor- 
dinate asceticism, which at once assumes a meritorious 
character, and gives a false tone to the morality of 
Tertullian, especially after he became a Montanist. 
Repentance is transformed into penance ; tears purify 
the soul ; public confession, made in sackcloth and 
ashes, extinguishes the fire of Gehenna in the heart. § 
We give satisfaction to the justice of God by afflicting 
our flesh and spirit. [| From the same fundamental 
error proceeds the sacramental materialism which 

* " De orat.," i. 

t "Haec Christus adjecerit ut supplementa consentanea disci- 
plinse creatoris," ("Adv. Marc," iv. 16.) | Ibid., ii. 18. 

§ " De pcenitentia," 12. 

II " De pristinis satisfacimus conflictatione carnis et Spiritus." 
(" De baptismo," 20.) 



454 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

was connected also with Tertullian's ideas of the 
corporeality of the soul. A magical virtue is attributed 
to the baptismal water. The Holy Spirit moved over 
the confused waters of chaos ; some particles of Divine 
influence are still retained by the element which re- 
ceived so great an honour.* The power of the demons 
has often made water an injurious instrument. t What 
ground is there then to question that the Divine in- 
fluence may make itself felt through the same medium 
in an opposite direction ? A truly sanctifying virtue 
is conferred on the baptismal water after the invocation 
of the officiator, and is communicated to the neophyte 
who has received the imposition of hands. J Christian 
baptism, which differs by its efficacy from the rite 
practised by John the Baptist, was only instituted 
after the completion of the work of Christ. It is 
necessary to salvation, unless its omission be supplied 
by martyrdom. § Tertullian admits that any Christian 
has the right to administer baptism, || and he wishes it 
to be deferred in the case of little children, who, not 
as yet knowing Jesus Christ, cannot fulfil the spiritual 
conditions required to give full efficacy to the sacra- 
mental grace. iT 

With regard to the Lord's Supper, he is much 
more moderate. His views are clear and positive that 
it is only a symbol of the broken body of Christ ; and 
he does not even hint at its possessing any magical 

- " De baptismo," 4. f Ibid., 5. 

I " Sanctissimus Spiritus super baptismi aquas tanquam pristi- 
nam sedem recognoscens conquiescit." (Ibid., 8. Comp. 5.) 

§ " Praescribitur nemini sine baptismo competere salutem." 
(Ibid., 12, 16.) II " Laicis just est." (Ibid.) 

IT " Cunctatio baptismi utilior est, prsecipue tamen circa parvulos." 
(Ibid., 18.) 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 455 

virtue.* We cannot hope to find in his doctrine of 
the final issues of the world's history more spirituality 
than in that of Irenseus. He insists strongly upon the 
resurrection of the flesh in the special treatise he has 
devoted to that subject, and this he accepts in the most 
material sense, though he looks for a glorious trans- 
figuration, t All nature will have its palingenesis. 
The soul awaits the final consummation in an inter- 
mediate state, which is neither earth nor heaven, but 
the preparation for future glory. I The millennium is 
the restoration of the reign of Christ upon earth. All 
the apocalyptic images are taken in a literal sense. 
Jesus will come again to judge the world. He will 
send the wicked to eternal punishment, and consume 
by fire the heavens and the earth that now are. From 
the ashes will arise a new and purified nature, and the 
Son will restore the kingdom to His Father.§ 

Such is this system, marked from beginning to end 
by a character of narrowness and realism, but illu- 
minated by splendid flashes of genius and eloquence. 

* The leading passage on this point is found in " Contra Marc.," 
iv. 40 : "Acceptum panem et distributum discipuHs corpus suum 
ilium fecit, hoc est corpus meum dicendo, id est figura corporis mei. 
Figura autem non fuisset nisi Veritas esset corpus." (After having 
taken the bread and distributed it to His disciples, He made it His 
body — that is. He said, " This is my body," signifying the figure of 
my body. But there would be no figure if His body itself had not 
been a reality.) It is evident, in spite of interpretations to the con- 
trary (see Mcehler, " Patrology," vii. pp. 584, 585), that Tertulhan 
simply affirms in this passage the reality of the body of Christ, of 
which the eucharistic bread is merely a figure. 

f " De resurrect, carnis," 57. 

I " De anima," 55-58. " The soul passes through no other suffer- 
ing than that of awaiting the resurrection " (chap. 58). This pre- 
sents no analogy to expiation. 
§ " De spectac," 30 ; " De resurrect, carnis," 63. 



456 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

It was destined to exert a considerable influence on 
Christian thought, alike by its imperfections and its 
nobler features. 

§ II. Cyprian. 

Tertullian owes in large measure the permanence 
and extent of his influence to the wise moderation of 
his disciple Cyprian, who served him no less by his 
modifications of the master's doctrine, than by the 
lucid and softened form in which he presented it as a 
whole. The boiling torrent subsides in his writings 
into a river flowing through a channel broad and deep. 
Cyprian adds nothing to the theology of Tertullian ; he 
guides it into no new course; but he carefully guards 
and moderates the fresh current of thought just opened 
by an impetuous and original mind. On one point 
alone — his view of the Church — has he supplemented 
or given a defined form to the teaching of the master. 
It is needless then for us to dwell here upon the 
dogmatic portion of his work, since it presents nothing 
original, but only develops in strains of calm and 
noble eloquence the thoughts of his illustrious pre- 
decessor. 

These Cyprian reproduces in his theology, avoiding 
as far as possible the use of rigid formularies. He quotes 
the principal texts of the Old Testament by which 
Tertullian established that the Word was the Wisdom 
of the Book of Proverbs, produced by God before any 
of His works.* It is probable therefore that he also 
held that the Word had a beginning, and that the 
eternal thought of God only became a distinct person 
''' Cyprian, "Testim. contra Judasos," ii. i. 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 457 

at the creation. He does not enlarge upon the perfect 
divinity of Christ, in whom he recognised and adored 
the God-Man, without defining the relation of the 
two natures.* He is not more explicit than Tertullian 
as to the work of salvation ; he affirms rather than 
expounds it. It is in his representation not so much 
a redemption, as deliverance from death and succour 
against sin ; though he also uses the apostolic language, 
and speaks of our redemption by the blood of Christ. t 
But it is a redemption w^hich has in it nothing absolute 
and incommunicable, since it is to be supplemented by 
our works, especially by almsgiving and martyrdom, 
the latter possessing a purif3'ing virtue. The Jewish 
religion would have been final if the obligations which 
it imposed on its adherents had been observed by them. 
The Jews lost their privilege by their pride and diso- 
bedience. J Jesus Christ came then only because the 
work of Moses had failed. The difference between the 
two Testaments is not really maintained on such a 
conception of the Gospel. A return to the institutions 
of the Old Testament is but one step further. The 
hierarchical theocrac}' exists in germ in such a doctrine. 
" The Word of God, who is also His wisdom, His 
power, and glory, came to be the revealer and the 
teacher of the human race, according to the oracles of 
the prophets. He stoops to enter the womb of a virgin, 
and the Holy Spirit assumes human flesh. "§ These 

'■' C)^rian, " Testim. contra Judseos.," ii. 6-10. 

I " Per sanguinem Domini redempti sumus." (" De habitu 
virg.," 2.) 

I "Judceis primum erat apud Deum gratia sed illi negligentes 
disciplinae dum divina pr^cepta contemnunt, datam sibi gratiam 
perdiderunt." (" De idol, vanit.," 10.) 

§ "Gratis arbiter et magister sermo et Filius Dei mittitur qui 



458 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

expressions indicate a very vague conception of the 
Trinity, since the third person seems to be confounded 
with the second. " God joins Himself to man : it 
is our God, our Christ, who took on Him humanity to 
bring it back to the Father."* " Christ was pleased 
to be what man is, that man might be what Christ 
is." After casting out the demons by His word, 
healing the paralytics, cleansing the lepers, raising 
the dead, commanding the elements, and compel- 
ling the winds and the sea to obey Him, He was cru- 
cified by the Jews. "The prophets had foretold this 
fact as necessary, not simply in order that He might be 
acquainted with death, but that He might conquer it ; 
and that, reascending into heaven after His passion, He 
might manifest His divine power. After having of His 
own free will given up the spirit which was in Him, 
thus anticipating the deed of His executioners. He rose 
again the third day. He was then received up by a 
cloud into heaven, that by His victory He might raise 
to the right hand of His Father that humanity which 
He had loved, taken upon Himself, and saved from 
death. The disciples whom He left spread abroad His 
precepts for the salvation of the world, and to dispel the 
darkness of error by the light of truth. "t Victory over 
death, the manifestation of His power, the enlighten- 
ment of the minds of men, — this is in brief the work 
of redemption. Cyprian says elsewhere that the Lord 
alone can pardon sins because He has borne them upon 
Him, because He was delivered by God for those sins, 

per prophetas omnes retro illuminator et doctor humani generis 
prsedicabatur. Carnem Spiritus sanctus induitur, Deus cum homine 
miscetur." (" De idol, vanit.," ii.) 

* Ibid. f Ibid., 13-15. 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 459 

and suffered for us. But this is only the repetition of a 
text of which he has not apprehended the true mean- 
ing, as is shown by the words which follow this declara- 
tion : " The merits of the martyrs and the works of 
the saints are of great weight with the Judge."* The 
treatise on ^' Good Works and Almsgiving " develops 
the principle of meritorious works; they are clearly 
described as means of propitiation, expiating our sins.t 
Jesus can then be said to have borne our burden only 
in a very limited sense. He did not so much repair 
the wrong, as to take upon Himself the consequences 
of evil, and His death is a triumph, not an expiation. 
Doubtless the result of this victory is permanent gain 
to us ; it procures us the succour of His grace and 
the perpetual presence of His love by which He 
dwells in His Church. He is indeed the liberator, 
but He is not in the complete sense the Redeemer. 
Hence Christian morality loses its sublime simplicity. 
It is a scale of merits, carefully graduated, instead 
of being the appropriation of the work of Calvary 
accomphshed once for all to cover all our sins. The 
highest steps of this ladder rise above the level of virtue 
obligatory on all. Martyrdom, though it may be de- 
manded of all Christians should the occasion arise, 
raises to peerless honour those who endure it ; but 
virginity, which cannot be made incumbent on all be- 
lievers, is a counsel of perfection, which all should follow 
who desire to belong to the elect among the saints. | 

^ " Credimus quidem posse apud judicem plurimum mart}Tum 
merita et opera justoiiim." ('' De lapsis," 17,) 

t " Magisteria divina docuerunt operationibus justis Deo satis- 
fieri, misericordi^ meritis peccata purgari." (" De operis et eleemo- 
S}Tia," 5.) 



460 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Cyprian believed of necessity in sacramental efficacy, 
the virtue of which increases in the exact ratio of the 
depreciation of the work of redemption. He is satisfied 
however to see in the Holy Communion a type ojf the 
mystical union of Christians with a crucified Saviour,* 
though he seems sometimes to attribute magical virtue 
to the elements, and regards the eucharist as the sa- 
crifice which the Church offers to God.t He accepts 
Tertullian's idea of baptism, ascribing to it a regene- 
rative power.! It is in his idea of the Church we 
trace the most unhappy consequences of his general 
doctrine. He identifies absolutely the outward with 
the inward and spiritual fact, confounding the visible 
and invisible, and making unity the essential character 
of the religious society, so that no holiness can exist 
outside its limits. That which within its sacred sha- 
dow is holy, becomes elsew^here a sin.§ The episco- 
pate is the only continuation of the apostolate; it takes 

'■' On the one hand, Cyprian says that by the Holy Communion 
we are strengthened by the body and blood of Christ : " Non 
inermes protectione sanguinis et corporis Christi muniamus quos 
excitamus ad prselium." (" Epist.," 57, 2.) On the other hand, in 
his letter 73, he declares that it is the wine which is offered to God 
in the eucharist (" Epist.," 73, 13), and that the water mixed with it 
represents the people of God. This passage determines the repre- 
sentative and typical value of the eucharist : Videmiis in aqua 
popuhnn intelUgi. The sacrament represents the union of Christian 
people with Christ in the Supper. Now, as it is not possible to sup- 
pose a transubstantiation of the water into the corporeal reality of 
the Church, so must we set aside any such idea in connection 
with the wine, which is only the emblem of the blood of Jesus 
Christ. 

f Cyprian calls it the Holy Supper {Oblatio, sacrificiiim), and 
speaks of the altar. (" Epist.," i. 1,2; 12, 2.) 

\ "Per baptisma Spiritus Sanctus accipitur." (Ibid., 73, 8.) 

§ "Adulterari non potest sponsa Christi. Quisque ab Ecclesia 
segregatur adultercC jungitur." ("De unitate Eccles.," 6.) 



BOOK II. — THE SCHOOL OF CARTHAGE. 46 I 

the place of the priesthood of the Old Testament, as the 
pillar of the spiritual building.* To divide the Church 
is to rend the robe of Christ ; excommunication should 
be the doom of all schismatics. t The hierarchical sys- 
tem is not yet complete, more than one link is wanting 
to the chain. The primacy of Peter and that of the 
bishop of Rome are alike denied, t ^^'ith the latter 
Cyprian enters unhesitatingly into controvers3'.§ The 
laity are not deprived of their ancient rights ; they have 
a voice in the chapter in the government of religious 
matters, ji The Church is not a monarchy, it is an epis- 
copal senate. It is nevertheless true that the wall of 
separation between the people of God and the priest- 
hood has been rebuilt. How could it be otherwise, 
when the redemptive efficacy of the sacrifice of Calvary 
is depreciated as it is by Cyprian ? We must recognise 
that all has been accomplished on the cross, before the 
veil can be rent from top to bottom, and the wa}- of 
access into the holiest laid open to the whole people of 
God. The bondage of the Church, about to become 
so grievous in the following age, was thus prepared 
by the deviations of her teachers from the true doctrine 
of redemption ; and through the might of Tertullian's 

'■' "De imitate Eccles.," 4. 

f " Apostolis, id est episcopos." (" Epist," 3, 3.) " Episcopatus 
unus est, Ecclesia quoque una est." (" De unit. Eccles.," 5.) The 
episcopate is a new priesthood : Sacerdotalis auctoritas. (" Epist.," 

69, 7.) 

I " Ouando tunica Christi non dividitur." (" De unit. Eccles.," 

i7,i8.r 

§ " Hoc erant utique et c^teri apostoli quod fuit Petrus." (Ibid., 

4.) _ 

II "A primordio episcopatus mei statuerim nihil sine concilio 
vestro et sine consensu plebis mea privatim sententia gerere." 
("Epist.," 14,4.) 



462 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

eloquence, and the high and legitimate influence of 
Cyprian, it was at Carthage that these deviations 
acquired the gravest influence. The doctrine of final 
issues differs in the writings of Cyprian from that of 
his predecessors upon one important point. He rejects 
the idea of an intermediate state between death and 
judgment. According to him, the irrevocable sentence 
is passed upon every soul as it quits the earthly life, a 
fact which will not however interfere with the universal 
judgment on the great resurrection day.* 

-'= " Ad Demetrionum." 26. 



CONCLUSION. 

At the close of this exposition of the theology of the 
second and third centuries, let us cast a rapid glance 
over the ground traversed, not indeed with any view to 
a chimerical synthesis, for it is not possible to compre- 
hend in one line of view schools which differ so widely, 
and which, though they all rest on the same basis of 
faith, are too rich in original ideas to be constrained 
into uniformity. It is just this fertile variety which 
enables contemporary theology to make such large use 
of the ante-Nicene Fathers. On more than one impor- 
tant point they have been, not surpassed, but forgotten ; 
everything contained in their teaching which was not 
in accordance with the official credo of the age of 
authority was at one time eliminated. Such of their 
views as militated against the received orthodoxy of 
the Church had become null and void in the fourth and 
fifth centuries ; but they are brought out again to the 
light by the fuller development of religious thought 
which characterises our own day. My design, in these 
concluding remarks, is not to present a broad picture 
of the whole theological movement of primitive Chris- 
tianity, for a field of history so wide and various cannot 
be thus comprehensively treated; but merely to disinter 
the nuggets of pure gold which have been left buried, 
not because they were so largely mingled with alloy as 



464 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

to be scarcely discernible, but because of their very 
purity. 

We have seen theology properly so called originating 
with the Greco-Asiatic school, of which Justin Martyr 
was the head or the initiator ; then developing itself 
with incomparable breadth at Alexandria, through the 
subtle and brilliant genius of Clement and the dialectic 
power of Origen, who formed the first complete system. 
St. Hippolytus represents at Rome the Oriental school 
with all its greatness and all its defects. Irena^us weds 
it in a manner with the genius of the West, and frees 
it from Platonist abstraction : this is the special merit 
and glory of the Gallo-Asiatic school, which is weak on 
the question of authority. The school of Carthage, 
which unhappily espouses ardently the cause of epis- 
copal monarchy, fails to hold the advanced ground 
reached by the bishop of Lyons with regard to the 
living conception of the Deity, and blends a fierce 
asceticism with the extreme assertion of the rule of 
faith. Let us pass rapidly in review the essential 
points of the Christian doctrine, in order to draw the 
line between the errors and imperfections which may 
be buried with the past, and the true and fruitful ideas 
which may still be of benefit to ourselves. 

We recognise at the outset that the ante-Nicene 
theology was led, by its resistance to Gnostic and 
naturalistic fatalism, to settle firmly the bases of 
moral order. All its organs without exception affirm 
with perfect clearness the free action of God and of 
man. This is abundantly evident from the passages 
we have quoted. The idea of arbitrary predestination 
is purely a doctrine of heresy. Confronted with a 



CONCLUSION. 465 

pantheism equally hostile, under all its various dis- 
guises, Christian theology felt that it could only gain 
the battle by remaining strictly faithful to the revela- 
tion of conscience. Doubtless, liberty was too often 
reduced to mere freedom of choice, as in the system of 
Origen ; but Irensus rises to the conception of positive 
liberty, which is not merely an act, but a state, and by 
the trial of the will brings us to the realisation of our 
true destiny. He admits that man finds his consumma- 
tion in the divine life by union with the Word. How- 
ever we may regard this divergence, the motto of all 
primitive theology is this : "God never uses violence : 
He only persuades." 

The contest with Gnosticism had the further effect 
of vindicating the unity of God as. opposed to dualism. 
The Alexandrine Fathers established admirably that 
justice and goodness are not two attributes in opposi- 
tion, but are inseparable in their action. ''Justice is 
full of goodness, and goodness of justice," says Clement; 
nor is he controverted by Tertullian, who declares 
boldly that the essence of God is goodness, and that 
He is only constrained to severity by our abuse of 
liberty. Nothing was needed but to deduce the con- 
sequences from these principles, in order to arrive at 
the complete and living conception of the God who 
is essential love. The Platonist school had still too 
strong a hold on cultivated minds to allow Christian 
theodicy to escape its influence, and the moral idea 
became subordinate to the metaphysical. The Fathers 
brought up in this school of brilliant speculation, saw 
in God rather the Ineffable One, the Transcendent x\b- 
solute, than the Father who is infinite love. Hence 

31 



466 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the defectiveness of their Trinitarian system. The 
Trinity becomes a necessity in relation to the world ; 
it is not the completion of the Divine life, of the very 
being of God. If God is love, He must have through 
all eternity an object to love, and we are thus led to 
the eternity of the Word as a person. The mystery 
which overwhelms the reason satisfies the conscience, 
since it is only the eternal realisation of its highest 
ideal. Justin, Origen, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Cyprian 
— all fail to reach this height : thus with most of them 
the Word has a beginning. He simply precedes crea- 
tion in order to call it into existence, as the organ of 
the first principle. The subordination of the Son to 
the Father, thus understood, becomes so marked that 
it is hard to maintain with any logical consistency 
the full divinity of the Word. We are still far from 
Arianism, however, which makes the Word come forth 
from nothing ; for all the Fathers of that age regard 
Him as proceeding from God — to use their own ex- 
pression, as the stream from its source, the ray from 
the sun. The Council of Nicsea certainly made a 
great advance in theology by establishing that the 
Trinity was, not merely contingent on creation, but 
was an evolution of the Divine life in itself. It was 
wrong, however, in confining itself too closely within 
the metaphysical sphere, and in neglecting the great 
moral idea of love, which implies the eternity of the 
Son, resting in the bosom of the Father, according to 
the sublime image of St. John. In direct contradiction, 
moreover, of the positive teaching of Scripture, it ab- 
solutely denied the subordination of the Word, a fact 
which is perfectly reconcilable with His eternity, since 



CONCLUSION. 467 

He is eternally the Son and never the Father. With 
regard to the personality of the Holy Spirit, we are 
bound to admit that Christian antiquity was very vague 
and undecided, and that it often seemed to confound 
together the second and third persons of the Trinity. 
This outline of primitive theodicy clearly necessi- 
tates a large expansion, if not of our theological 
conception, at least of our appreciation of theological 
systems. Even should we still hold the conviction 
that the eternal divinity of the Word alone suffices to 
give the true idea of God, it will be impossible for us 
to exclude from the pale of Christianity all that deviates 
metaphysically from this point of view ; for this would 
be to involve in the same condemnation the most illus- 
trious representatives of the Church of the martyrs. 

Anthropology was one of the glories of the theology 
of this period, but its depth and breadth caused it to 
be entirely ignored in the ages which followed. All 
the Fathers of the second and third centuries, except 
Arnobius, maintained with a boldness which would be 
considered scandalous in many sections of the Church 
of our day, the original relationship between man and 
God. They were never weary of dilating on the grand 
saying of Paul to the Athenians, " Ye are the offspring 
of God." From Justin, who discerns in our higher 
life the germ of the Word, to Tertullian, who openly 
avows our true nature to be Divine, none of them 
hesitate to speak of the divinity of man. They use 
the word without hesitation. Man's destiny finds its 
full realisation in God. " First man, then God." 
This saying of the theologian of Carthage truly repre- 
sents the thought of all the Fathers. The Word is 

31 * 



468 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the prototype of Adam — the second Adam, that is, the 
true Adam, not marred by sin, but realising the idea 
or the ideal of humanity. Such a doctrine, carried to 
its ultimate consequences, might have produced the 
broadest and most comprehensive conception of the 
nature of the Redeemer. Unhappily, many of the 
Fathers wavered upon this point, and, untrue to their 
own principle, yielded to the dualising tendency; and 
so completely separated the man from the God in 
Christ, that the unity of the person can only be ad- 
mitted by a mental tour de force. Irenseus alone is 
almost entirely free from this inconsistency ; he had 
already deviated from his predecessors in his con- 
ception of God, which was far less of an abstraction 
than that of Alexandrine Platonism, since the first 
principle in his view is eternal love. We have quoted 
at some length the admirable passages in which he 
shows us in the incarnate Word the perfect man — 
the very man whom God had in view in creation. He 
truly humbled Himself to us, in order to raise us to 
Himself. Homo f actus est ut nos assuesceret fieri Dei. 
The dogma of the two natures finds no place in his 
theology, which cannot be too highly commended to 
the study of our contemporaries. 

We have seen that redemption is for the most part 
stated in a very incomplete manner in the systems of this 
period, although it is never reduced to a mere declaration 
pure and simple of the divine love. All the ante-Nicene 
Fathers allow that the restoration of humanity requires 
a positive act of reparation, a sacrifice, but none of 
them has an adequate apprehension of the awful depths 
of evil. They affirm the fact of the Fall, without 



CONCLUSION. 469 

sufficiently recognising the extent of its ravages. They 
are indeed right in their unanimous rejection of the 
false and exaggerated idea of the total corruption of 
human nature ; and yet, in spite of his doctrinal ex- 
travagances, St. Augustine will accomplish a very neces- 
sary task when, two centuries later, he grapples closely 
with this large and melancholy theme. The idea of a 
ransom paid to Satan, which was chiefly developed by 
Origen, bears evident traces of Gnostic origin. Divine 
justice is not recognised in all its claims. If the theo- 
logy of the second and third centuries rejects by all its 
organs the inadmissible theory of a strictly judicial satis- 
faction, which makes the curse of God to alight directly 
upon the innocent head of the Crucified, it at the same 
time fails to recognise the full scope and the deep neces- 
sity of the reparative sacrifice, with the exception indeed 
of Irenseus, who on this point, as on many others, is 
the most faithful inheritor of apostolic teaching. He in- 
sists, with much force, upon the necessity of a retracta- 
tion of the primeval rebellion, by a perfect obedience 
even unto death. But these grand thoughts were but 
imperfectly developed, and come down to us in a more 
or less fragmentary form. Evidently succeeding ages 
had an important mission to fulfil in this respect. 
Irenseus and Clement of Alexandria needed to be sup- 
plemented by Augustine and Anselm, while we ourselves 
shall do well to retain the element of truth found in 
each theory. It remained for the Reformation of the 
sixteenth century to extirpate from primitive theology 
all the false notions as to works of merit and expiation 
which had crept into it ; not failing at the same time to 
maintain, in opposition to the vehement reaction of Cal- 



470 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY." 

vinism, that assertion of liberty which the ante-Nicene 
Fathers uttered with one voice. 

That which cannot be too highly commended is the 
noble spirituality of this great epoch in the religious 
life. The narrow Sabbatarianism which has played so 
large a part in Protestant piety is completely foreign 
to it. It does not allow that the Sunday has been 
substituted for the Sabbath, though it lays much 
stress on the celebration of the Christian feast. It does 
not believe in the necessity of a sanctuary any more^ 
than in that of a day of greater holiness than the rest. 
If it wavers upon the notion of the priesthood, we may 
make the same apology for it as for Irenseus, who is the 
first to give expression to the idea of the apostolic suc- 
cession in the episcopate, and who is led to entertain 
that view under the double pressure of persecution and 
heresy. Neither Justin, Clement, nor Origen teaches 
anything of the sort. We shall see in the sequel of this 
history how prolonged and fierce was the conflict for 
the liberty of the Church. The sacraments are vari- 
ously understood ; it is difficult indeed to derive any 
distinct and definite idea from the mystical language 
employed with regard to them. Nowhere however do 
we find the exact idea of a magical transformation of 
the eucharistic elements, and many declarations having 
a contrary tendency may be cited. 

As to the method to be pursued in the determination 
of religious truth, the opinions are very various. Holy 
Scripture preserves its pre-eminence; inspiration is 
generally understood in its most rigorous sense, al- 
though statements are found in all the Fathers not easily 
to be reconciled with such a theory. They are almost 



CONCLUSION. 471 

all agreed in recognising an enlarged measure of inspira- 
tion in the New Testament. Irenseus considers that the 
exclusive gift of prophecy terminated with Christ : its 
object was to accustom man to bear the Divine Spirit 
within. The canon of the sacred writings is not de- 
fined with any fixity. The Apocryphal Gospels, the 
" Letter to Barnabas," and the '' Pastor Hermas," are 
constantly quoted like the Gospels and Epistles. 
Oral tradition is appealed to by Irenasus. He deems 
that by its aid he can go back to the teaching of the 
apostles ; and he argues that the faithful memory of 
that teaching is to be sought only in the Churches 
founded by them. Upon this point, however, there are 
notable diversities of opinion. While Clement of 
Alexandria enjoins the patient labour of religious 
thought, and does not fear the inevitable differences of 
opinion sure to arise from such a study, Tertullian in 
his treatise, " De Prescriptiones," seeks to cut short 
all inquiry, and bequeaths to his episcopal disciple, 
Cyprian, the charge of completing his work, and of 
teaching the reason to bow before the majestic unity of 
the visible Church, which lacks as yet, however, the 
crown of the pontificate. Everything proclaims the 
advent of a new order of things. We must be careful, 
however, not to antedate it, by confounding its prepara- 
tion with its consummation. The general characteristics 
of the theology of the second and third centuries 
are still liberty and diversity upon the common ground 
of a living faith in Christ. 

After thus indicating that which appears to us sugges- 
tive and helpful in this theology, and pointing out also 
that which is in our view faulty and obsolete, it only 



472 THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

remains for us to leave this great history to convey 
its own lessons to the Christian thought of our day, by 
showing the dangers to be avoided and the precious 
veins to be worked. The first practical lesson it will 
teach is this — to repudiate alike the religious radical- 
ism which denies revelation, and the narrow orthodoxy 
which insists on the acceptance of its own interpreta- 
tions. In truth, neither the one tendency nor the other 
finds any sanction in the heroic Church, which was 
wise enough to encounter fundamental errors with the 
simple weapon of free discussion, and to vindicate the 
legitimate independence of the human mind by the 
very variety of its schools and its formularies. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Achmoth, 31, 32. 

JElia. Capitolina, y6. 

^ons, 27, 28, 29. 

Alogians, 127. 

Andrew, acts of, 165; martyr- 
dom of, 165. 

Anthropomorphism, its charac- 
ter and tendency, 19. 

Antichrist, 403. 

Apocr}-phal wTitings, 155; gos- 
pels of, 161 ; apocalypses of, 
183. 

Ariman, 60. 

Asceticism, 453. 

Athenagoras, 250; on the Word, 
250; on angel of matter, 251 ; 
on marriage, 251 ; on sin, 251 ; 
on sacrifices of blood, 251. 



Barcocheba, y6. 
Barnabas, epistle of, 6. 
Basihdes, Gnostic system of, 22, 

23, 24. 
Beast, name of, 403. 



Beryllus, bishop of Botsra, 136, 
Bossuet, 210. 
Buddhism, 12. 

CaUisthus, 144 ; favours Noetus' 
views, 145 ; becomes rigidly 
orthodox, 146. 

Carthage, school of, 419. 

Catechumens, faith of, 204. 

Cerinthus, j^. 

Childhood of Mar}-, Arabic 
gospel of, 176. 

Christ, second Moses, 244 ; 
monogram of name, 197. 

Church, the, 346 ; faith of, in 
second and third centuries, 
195-199 ; two great sections of, 
219 ; conflicts of, i, 2. 

Christianity, its character and 
sphere, 7, 8. 

Clement of Alexandria, theodicy 
of, 256 ; his idea of God at 
first, 256; on duty of Christian 
Gnostics, 257 ; on intuition of 
the Divine Being, 258; on the 



474 



THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 



Word, 258 ; on righteousness 
and goodness, 261 ; on punish- 
ment, 261 ; on doctrine of 
Trinity, 264; on main end 
and goal of Creation, 265 ; on 
emanation from Divinity, 265 ; 
on prescience of God, 265 ; 
on demons, 266 ; on the Fall, 
267 ; on sufferings of the 
Redeemer, 269; on sacrifice, 
269; on moral purification, 
270 ; on justification, 27 1 ; on 
sins committed before and 
after repentance, 274; on 
heaven, 276; on Judaism, 
277 ; on Christian morality, 
279 ; on condition and calling 
of life, 280; on martyrdom, 
282 ; on special priesthood, 
283 ; on mysteries of religious 
knowledge, 285 ; on outward 
sacrifices, 286 ; on distinction 
of days, 287; on inspiration 
of Scriptures, 288; on three- 
fold meaning of Scripture, 
289; on Church authority in 
matters of doctrine, 291 ; on 
foundation of unity, 293 ; on 
baptism and the Lord's Sup- 
per, 294. 

"Clementine Homihes," doc- 
trines of, 85-88. 

Cleomenes, supporter of Unita- 
rianism, 143. 



Conclusion, 461-472. 
Conflicts of the Church, i, 2. 
Consummation of all things, 

353. 

Corinthians, apocalypse of, 171. 

Creation, design of, 251. 

Creation and Fall, 308. 

Cyprian, 456 ; wise modera- 
tion of, 456 ; reproduces the 
thoughts of his master Ter- 
tullian, 456-458 ; treatise of, 
on " Good Works and Alms- 
giving," 459 ; on sacramental 
efficacy, 460 ; on the episco- 
pate, 460 ; on intermediate 
state, 462. 

Diognetus, letter to, 221 ; echo 
of school of Ephesus, 222 ; 
designed to estabhsh claims 
of evangelical religion, 223 ; 
doctrinal idea of, 224; idea of 
God therein developed, 225 ; 
asserts moral freedom, 226 ; 
ridicules prescriptive observ- 
ance of Sabbath and fast, 
227 ; an isolated monument 
towering over all that sur- 
rounds it, 227. 

Demiurgus, 33, 45. 

Divine Being, intuition of, 258. 

Divinity, no finite being emana- 
tion from, 265. 

Dionysius of Alexandria, 360. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



475 



Dionysius, bishop of Rome, 

416 ; letter of, 417. 
Docetism, 16. 
Doctrine, Christian development 

of, 193. 
Dogmatic development of 2nd 

and 3rd centuries, various 

schools and tendencies in, 

208. 
" Dogmatic Theology," Father 

Petau's, 209. 

Ebionitism, 83 ; meaning of 
term, 83 ; doctrine of, 84, 85. 

Elkesaites, doctrines of, 81, 82. 

Emanations, 27. 

Essenism, 13. 

Eugene Haag, "History of Doc- 
trine" of, 215. 

Father, the, an unfathomable 
abyss, 26 ; all love, 27. 

Feasts, Jewish, replaced by 
Christian festivals, 198. 

Freppel, Abbe, 211. 

Ginoulhac, Mgr., 212. 

Gnosticism, dominant trait of, 
6 ; its mythology of numbers, 
19; Christian, 16; reasonable 
division of systems of, 21 ; 
sources of symbolism of, 20. 

Gnostics, first school of, 22 ; 
second school of, 39. 



Gospels, apocryphal, 176. 
Greco-Roman rehgion, 13. 
Greco-Roman school, 374, 
Greco-Asiatic school, 221. 
Gregory Thaumaturgus, 358. 
Gundaphora, king of, 167. 

Hegelianism, 10. 

Henri Klee, 210. 

Hermas, Pastor, book of, 109. 

Heresy, 3, 4, 5. 

Hippolytus, 405 ; his idea of 
God abstract, 406 ; on con- 
stituent and primordial ele- 
ments of finite existence, 408 ; 
on Adam's fall, 409 ; on sal- 
vation, 409 ; on Holy Scrip- 
ture as supreme in matters of 
religion, 415. 

Hystaspis, book of, 188. 

Ignatius, motto of, 197. 

Irenaeus, theology of, 375 ; 
theodicy of, 376 ; on Divine 
ontolog}^, 378 ; on the Fall, 
381 ; on consequence of sin, 
381 ; on grounds of condem- 
nation, 382 ; on immaculate 
conception, 385 ; on real sub- 
stitution, 387 ; on the cruci- 
fixion, 388 ; on relation of 
the two Testaments, 390-393 ; 
on the Lord's Supper, 394 ; no 
theory of baptism, 399 ; on 



476 



THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 



oral tradition, 401 ; on literal 
inspiration of the Old and New 
Testaments, 403 ; on common 
faith of all the Churches, 202. 

John, St., acts of, 181 ; book 
of, on "Death of Mary," 187. 

Joseph the carpenter, Coptic 
gospel of, 176. 

Judseo - Christian community, 
three sections of, 74, 'j^ \ 
modified by events, 76 ; third 
school of, 79 ; Justin Martyr's 
opinion of, 'j']^ 78. 

Julius Africanus, 368. 

Justin Martyr, theology of, 227 ; 
his abstract theodicy, 229 ; 
affirms Divinity of Christ, 
230 ; makes Him second in 
rank, 230 ; on theophanies of 
Old Testament, 230 ; on Word 
created by the Father, 231 ; 
identifies Spirit with the 
Word, 232 ; universe work of 
the Word, 233 ; on idolatry, 
234 ; on appearance of the 
Word, 235 ; on the work of 
redemption, 236 ; on Jewish 
sacrifices, 238 ; on death of 
Christ, 238 ; compares Him 
to the goat Azazel, 239 ; on 
curse borne by Christ, 240 ; 
on last prayer of Christ, 241 ; 
resurrection of Christ large 



place in his writings, 241 ; on 
Lord's day, 242 ; on Christ as 
second Moses, 244 ; his posi- 
tion above all the varied 
schools of Judceo-Christianity, 
245 ; on baptism, 246 ; on 
the Lord's Supper as a kind 
of transubstantiation, 246 ; on 
prophecy as the gift of all 
Christians, 247 ; believes in 
an earthly Jerusalem, 248 ; 
seems to admit the eternity of 
suffering, 249 ; his system 
abounding in contradictions, 
251. 

Latinus, name of the Beast, 403. 
Liturg}^, Alexandrine, 200. 

Mani, 54, 55 ; assumes name of 
Paraclete, 56 ; cruelly put to 
death, 59 ; his system, 60-73 ; 
St. Augustine on, 64. 

Manichseism, 51, 52, 54. 

Marcion, 40-47. 

Martyrdom, its effects, 2. 

Methodius, 37. 

Milner, Church histoiy of, 213. 

Mithra, mysteries of, 52. 

Montanism, loi ; three main 
elements of, 102 ; strong re- 
action against established or- 
der, 105 ; early history of, 
obscure, 107; its rise in Phr}^- 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



477 



gia ; io8 ; Montanus, founder 
of, 1 08 ; development of, in 
Rome, 109 ; openly con- 
demned, 109 ; largest number 
of adherents in Africa, no; 
doctrine of, 110-114; pytho- 
ness of, 114; revelations of, 
no; fastings of, 117 ; forbids 
marriage, 119; perversion of 
doctrine of redemption, 122. 

Moehler, his " Patrolog}-," 211. 

Moses, apocalypse of, 183. 

M}ths of the East, 11. 

Nativity, gospel of, 176. 

Naturalism mystical, 12. 

Nazarenes, 78. 

Neo-Platonism, 13. 

Newman, Dr., "The Develop- 
ment of Christian Doctrine " 
of, 214. 

Nicodemus, gospel of, 175. 

Ophites, 39 ; influence of, 66, 
Origen, system of, 296 ; theodicy 
of, 299 ; Godhead complete in 
the Father, 300 ; Son, same 
in essence as the Father, 306 ; 
on Holy Spirit, 307 ; on Crea- 
tion, 308 ; on free will, 309-31 2 ; 
his " Treatise on Principles, 
309 ; his theory incomplete, 
113 ; on anterior condition of 
life, 315; onrebelHonof Satan, 



316 ; on the Fall, 315 ; his 
idea of a hierarchy, 316-320; 
on condition of fallen man, 
320 ; on redemption, 321 ; 
on human soul of Christ, 324 ; 
defects of his ihoory, 325-327 ; 
on redemption of humanity, 
329 ; on ransom, 331-334 ; his 
positive dualism, 336 ; on work 
of Redeemer since the resur- 
rection, 337 ; on conversion 
and Christian life, 338 ; on 
inward life, 342 ; on asceti- 
cism, 342-346 ; on the Church, 
346 ; on priesthood of Chris- 
tians, 347; on sacraments, 
348-350 ; on consummation of 
all things, 353. 
Ormuz, 60. 

Pamphylus, 371. 

Parseeism, 13. 

Patristic divergence, 210-212. 

Patriarchs, twelve, Testament 
of, 174. 

Petau, Father, dogmatic the- 
ology of, 209. 

Paul and Thekla, acts of, 179. 

Paul of Samosata, bishop of 
Antioch, 131 ; surrounds him- 
self with great pomp, 132 ; 
condemned by council of An- 
tioch, 133 ; his opinion of 
Christ, 135. 



478 



THE EARLY YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY. 



Pella, 76. 

Peter, apocalypse of, 1 88. 

Peter and Paul, acts of, 177. 

Philo, great precursor of Gnos- 
ticism, 14, 

Philosophy, Pythagorean, 19. 

Pierius, 357. 

Pistis Sophia, 36, 37, 38. 

Pleroma, 30, 31. 

Plutarch, 14. 

Praxeas, 139, 

Predestination, first appearance 
of, 24. 

Preps, 49. 

Protovangelism of James, 176. 

Pseudo-Matthew, 176. 

Ransom, 331-334- 
Rapture of Isaiah, 171. 
Redeemer, work of, since resur- 
rection, 337. 
Redemption, 301. 

Sabellius of Lybia, 146 ; his 

views, 148, 149. 
Sacraments, the, 348, 350. 
Stoics, the, 14. 
Sybil, the, 188. 
Syzygice, or couples, 19. 



Tatian, " Exhortation against 
the Greeks" by, 253; disciple 



of Justin, 253 ; on the Word, 
253 ; on matter as the source 
of evil influence, 254. 

TertulHan, system of, 419 ; he 
seeks not idea, but fact, 421 ; 
on revelation, 423 ; holds 
literal verbal inspiration, 424 ; 
his treatise on prescriptions, 
226 ; his theory of the apos- 
tolate, 229 ; on tradition of 
apostolic churches, 431 ; on 
doctrine of the Trinity, 436- 
442 ; on necessity of resurrec- 
tion, 444 ; his treatise "On 
the Body of Christ," 446 ; on 
redemption, 45a ; his idea of 
sacrifice, 451 ; on martyrdom, 
452 ; on asceticism, 453 ; his 
views of the Lord's Supper, 
454 ; he takes apocalyptic 
images literally, 455. 

Thaddeus, acts of, 182. 

Theodotuses, two, 128. 

Theognostus, catechist of Alex- 
andria, 439. 

Theology of the Alexandrine 
School primarily a defence of 
Christianity, 255 ; its absolute 
triumph over duahsm, 256. 

Theophilus of Antioch, 251 ; on 
design of Creation, 257 ; his 
idea of the Word, 252 ; on 
theophanies, 252 ; on mar- 
riage, 253. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



479 



Thomas, curious gospel ascribed 25, 26; his chief disciples, 

to, 161 ; origin of, 163. 35. 

Thought, three great schools of, Vedas, songs of, 12. 

15, 16. Vinet, beautiful words of, 390. 



Unitarians, first school of, 127 ; Word, world of the, 15 ; uni- 



definite form of, 128 ; second 
school of, 138. 

Valentinus, Gnostic system of, 
22, 23, 24 ; native of Egypt, 
24 ; his idea of human history, 



verse work of, 233 ; became 
incarnate in Jesus, 235 ; pro- 
duced by the Father by His 
wisdom, or Spirit, 252 ; eter- 
nal reason of God, 250 ; God 
Himself, 304. 



UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON. 



